In consideration of Turnbaugh's research, there were also potters who worked elsewhere in New England before 1770. Rhode Island and Connecticut both employed stoneware industries during this period, Connecticut also engaged a group of skilled red earthenware potters, Historic New England retains at least one example of dated (1738) early eighteenth-century red earthenware directly tied to a Maine potter and I have written in detail in recent reports about the direct ties between a business in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the industry in Charlestown, Massachusetts before 1750. Its pretty-much established today that Massachusetts was the central-point of commerce for the potter's industry in New England, but there were small businesses elsewhere in the region that should not be overlooked today for their roles before the American Revolution - and the domestic source of utilitarian wares they supplied.
18th Century Red Earthenware Pot Made by John Day in 1739 in Maine
At the Time Maine was Actually a Part of Massachusetts
At the Time Maine was Actually a Part of Massachusetts
The Pot is Covered with Inscription
Stands 10" Tall
Stands 10" Tall
Currently Kept at Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Ma
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
Close Up of the Inscription
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
How the Early Maine Pot Rests at Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Ma
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
Close Up of the Cupboard
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
This report will explain the fifth piece of red earthenware in the collection of Hollis Brodrick in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as part of this week's ongoing series. This has been a growing mini series that I have been writing all week long about a collection of redware Hollis hand-picked over the years. The is the fifth of six installments - with the final article scheduled to be published in the next few days.
The ensuing light-orange glazed red earthenware handled pot (shown at the end of this report) appeared at a small country auction in New Hampshire a number of years ago. The pot was actually purchased by Cape Cod scholar and antiques dealer, Brian Cullity; however, Hollis purchased it from him immediately following the sale. While I do enjoy the form of this pot, what really attracts me to it is the incised line work added for a spruced up decoration and the ear-shaped handle. The pot is also heavy, which is reminiscent of many of the thickly potted sherds I have studied and dissected from eighteenth-century archaeological contexts throughout New England.
According to Hollis, the pot was consigned from a period home in the small town of Sandwich, New Hampshire - and accompanying the pot, was a long family history that migrates back to the New Hampshire seacoast in the eighteenth-century.
Sandwich is a small town located in the lakes region nestled between places like Meredith, Moultonborough and Plymouth, New Hampshire. I have no archaeological proof; although, places like Exeter, Goreham, Hampton, Portsmouth, Sandown and Warwick, New Hampshire all employed potter's businesses before the American Revolution - and I have taken into consideration, if any of the potters that worked in these places, could be responsible for this pot. Regrettably, I do not have a precise answer for that, but it is a given that attributions are sometimes loosely based today and I do not wish to do that with this pot.
Pictured below is an incredible hand-thrown slip decorated eighteenth-century three-handled pitcher that is kept as part of the Nina Fletcher Little collection in Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Massachusetts. The pot was possibly made by the potter, Joseph Goodell in Warwick, New Hampshire. It is dated in slip, 1788. The back of the pot is decorated with dots in slip similar to a mug in Hollis' collection that I wrote about earlier this week with direct ties to potters in Portsmouth and Charlestown. This type of decoration was first made popular by the earthenware potters who worked in the Staffordshire region of England in the late-seventeenth-century.
Possibly Joseph Goodell Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pot Possibly Made in Warwick, NH
The Pot is Dated in Slip "1788"
Stands 7" Tall
Stands 7" Tall
Currently Kept at Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Ma
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
View of the Dotted Slip Decoration on the Back of the Pot
This Type of Decoration was Made Popular in Staffordshire, England Starting in the Late 1600's
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
How the Early New Hampshire Pitcher Rests at Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Ma
Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Boston, Ma
This is the main fact about the pot of discussion that I am fairly confident in saying: I do believe this pot dates from the eighteenth-century. Its an early-style of a form that is comparable to a similar design made in Essex County, Massachusetts that is attributed from the late seventeenth-century by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And again, while I cannot specifically say who made this pot - I do believe it was hand-thrown by a potter who worked no further south than Salem Massachusetts, while, on the other hand, I feel it is more likely a pot that was manufactured somewhere on the New Hampshire seacoast or inland in the southern and central parts of the state - well before the American Revolution.
18th Century Red Earthenware Pot Likely Made in Essex County, Ma
The MFA in Boston Suggests this Form May Date from the 17th Century
Notice the Ear-Shaped Handle Similar to the Handle on the Pot Shown Below
Photo Courtesy: Private New England Collection
View of the Handle
Photo Courtesy: Private New England Collection
A potter who I don't believe I have ever mentioned before is Nathaniel Libby, who operated a business in Portsmouth for decades prior to the mid-eighteenth-century; unfortunately, I do not know anything about his red earthenware output, which likely mirrored the products made in the area during the period.
Libby worked alongside potters, Samuel Marshall and John Shilabur in Portsmouth; unfortunately, I do not know how in-depth his involvement was with those potters, colonial Portsmouth and the New Hampshire seacoast. Nevertheless, I must ask the question: Could this be an example of his work considering the time-frame of his business may match up properly for when this pot may have been made? For the sake of this discussion, it is a small theory to consider even through I can probably develop a number of other concepts to also scrutinize and consider for this pot's origin. I think this pot may be one of those examples that many educated guesses can be developed, but for the time being - there is no concrete archaeological proof of what town or city it was made or more-accurately, who made it. For now, I feel it should be appreciated for the rare eighteenth-century survivor from New England (probably New Hampshire) that it represents.
Likely 18th Century Red Earthenware Handled Pot - Could Possibly Date Earlier
Consigned to a NH Auction from an Early Home in Sandwich, NH
The Family it Descended From was Originally from the NH Seacoast
Possibly a New Hamsphire or a Coastal Massachusetts Potter
Stands 6 7/8" Tall
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
Straight-On View of the Handle
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
View of the Ear-Shaped Handle From the Side
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
View of the Finely Applied Incised Decoration
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
A Closer Look at the Incised Decoration
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
Please Stay Tuned...The final discussion from this collection will be published by the end of this week!
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