A Red Earthenware Butter Churn Found in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire with a Possible Southern Origin

A few years ago, I purchased a red earthenware butter churn in an antique-type shop in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. I didn't really know what exactly to make of it at the time since the exterior was not glazed, the clay color was dark and the form did not really correspond with any other forms that I knew of which were made in New England in the 1800's. However, its appearance suggested to me that it was made sometime in the late-nineteenth-century. I had little-doubt that it was American-made, but I didn't really know who the maker was or the region that it was manufactured in. Regardless, red earthenware butter churns are considered rare today - so, I showed little hesitation and I purchased it.

I asked the woman running the shop, who was working behind the counter where the butter churn came from and she told that it was purchased from a house in Stratham, New Hampshire only a few weeks prior. She told me it was also just brought into the shop. Interestingly, Stratham is a bordering community of Exeter, New Hampshire, where multiple potter's businesses operated from before the American Revolution well-into the twentieth-century. The most prominent business known today from this industry is likely the Lamson Pottery, which operated through the family-name from as early as 1838 to at least 1935. It had briefly crossed my mind that this butter churn may have been made at this business, but soon after that initial thought - I never really gave it another serious consideration. My reasoning for this belief was due to the fact that I had no proof that it was made in Exeter (i.e. sherds, museum holdings, literature, etc) - and the churn really didn't fit in with the kind of output the Lamson Pottery is known for today. Never-the-less, my gut feeling said the churn was not made in New England, but I was still upbeat that it was made elsewhere by an American potter's business in the 1800's.

 My Niece, Alexis Pictured with the American-Made Butter Churn

Stands 14 1/8" Tall

Presumably from the Second-Half of the Nineteenth-Century

Found in a Shop in Hampton Falls, NH

Originally Found in a House in Stratham, NH

Another View of the Butter Churn

Interior of the Butter Churn

 View of the Butter Churn without the Cover

 View of the Glazed Interior

 Another View of the Glazed Interior

 View of the Bottom

 View of the Top of the Cover
Measures 10 1/2" Across

 View of the Bottom of the Cover

 View of the Cover's Side

 View of the Dasher

View of the Bottom of the Dasher

Since the day I purchased the butter churn, it has been resting in the same corner of my house. I made room for it next to an old red painted pine settee bench (also turns into a bed) that was made in either Maine, Vermont or Canada in the 1800's - and basically, that's where the butter churn has sat for the last two-years. I walk past it everyday. I don't usually think much of it; in spite of all this, I feel it is time that I write a follow-up to the introductory report I wrote in 2013 after making that initial discovery.

When I visited the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2013 to view the Lura Woodside Watkins Collection of New England-made red earthenware - I came across a similar pot kept in the same storage area as all of Watkins eighteenth and nineteenth-century utilitarian pottery. I didn't physically handle the pot. I'm not sure if it was another butter churn missing its lid - or if it was a crock in a very similar form. The size of it looked nearly identical to the butter churn I own, which stands just above fourteen-inches tall. The clay color on the crock in the Smithsonian also appeared similar.

Admittedly, I was caught off-guard. I didn't expect to see that crock in the Smithsonian. I was rather surprised. Until recently, the butter churn is not a piece I think of often; however, the pot I saw in the Smithsonian was unmistakable to me that it was likely from the same potter's business - and possibly the same potter. Unfortunately, my attention was elsewhere during the visit - I was there to study sherds collected by Watkins throughout New England in the 1930's and the 1940's. I was also there to photograph her collection for my studies. The pot that matched the churn I found in Hampton Falls slipped from my mind and I forgot to ask for more information about it before I left. I want to say the tag in this section said everything was from a southern state (possibly Virginia), but I am not positive of that. The partially glazed red earthenware crock to the left of the pot in the photo below does remind me of some stoneware with similar handles made in Virginia, but for now, I don't have anymore information. If anyone reading this has any further knowledge about the butter churn and the pot kept in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. - I would love to learn more about them both!

(Right) 19th Century Red Earthenware Crock - Possibly a Butter Churn Missing Its Lid

I Believe It is From a Southern Potter - Possibly Virginia
The Form of this Crock is Similar to the Butter Churn of Discussion
Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian - Washington, D.C.

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...

A Colorful 19th Century Red Earthenware Jug that Recently Emerged in Bristol, Vermont

The travels of antiques over the years can be a mystery for most; for example, how a stoneware crock made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the turn of the nineteenth-century ended up in rural Maine without an obvious explanation can leave many puzzled. Questions can also arise from how a green glazed red earthenware jug made in southeastern Massachusetts in the early 1800's ended up in North Carolina. From my experiences and from what I have been taught, it can never be taken for granted that since an object was found in a certain location that it was manufactured locally. A number of equations must be taken into account to prove where something was made - and sometimes it does work out proving that an object was in-fact from a local maker; however, there are other instances that can leave one baffled of why an object was found where it was.

A friend of mine alerted me to a wonderful glazed nineteenth-century red earthenware jug recently that I purchased cheaply out of Bristol, Vermont about two-weeks ago. When I first saw the picture, my reaction was that the jug was not made in Vermont, but I did think there was a chance it was made in neighboring Maine. None-the-less, when I looked up Bristol on a map - I noticed that it was located only a few miles north of Middlebury, Vermont, which is a known location today for having employed an important potter's business in the nineteenth-century. Examples of Middlebury-made pottery are represented in a number of museums around the country today. Unfortunately, the glaze and the form of this jug do not match what I would expect to have been made in Middlebury in the 1800's.

When the jug arrived in the mail earlier this week, my initial reaction was that it was not an obvious known Maine form or type of Maine glaze, either. I quickly referred to a number of photos I am fortunate to have from a very-important private collection in western New York that exhibit quite a few known products made in this region in the 1800's. With the exception of William Ketchum's book, Early Potters and Potteries of New York State, there aren't really any good books that completely identify the red earthenware potters of western New York and their detailed output today - so, localized private collections, museum holdings and small museum publications play an important role when trying to identify an object from this area. The form that I just received is a handled jug that can also be perceived as a pot that would have originally possessed a lid. It could have been used for cooking food over an open fire. Sadly, the jug's handle broke off a long time ago. There wasn't necessarily a reason to panic when this happened because the jug could have easily been repurposed into a storage jar. I assume that is what happened and why this pot has survived in the condition it is in today rather than having been deposited into a privy or a trash area years ago. The handle may have been necessary for when the pot was hot from the contents inside, but minus the handle, there were still many purposes the pot could have served around the common American country-style kitchen.

I carefully examined the jug's form and what I have found is that it is very-similar to a few lidded jars with a similar ovoid form in the private collection that I just cited. The glaze is also similar to other known western New York forms such as pitchers, jars and traditional jugs. I cannot be a hundred-percent sure this is a western New York product, but that's how it appears to me. Its difficult to suggest an actual attribution (i.e. city, town, business, potter) since there is so much left to be learned about this region today (and possibly why a complete book devoted exclusively to the red earthenware of this area hasn't been published, yet), but this would be my best guess as to where this jug originated from.

Now the big question: How did this colorful pot travel hundreds of miles that spanned mountain ranges from western New York into north central Vermont? Your guess is as good as mine! I'm sure the theories can get pretty creative!

Map Showing Bristol, Vt and the Western New York Red Earthenware Potter's Region

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

The pot stands just about nine-and-one-half inches tall. There are three colors of glaze seen; however, only the gold or rust and raspberry colors are the glazes that photographed well. There are also slight traces of green seen. I've said it before - I really believe that western New York is one of the most attractive regions today for the red earthenware that was produced in the nineteenth-century. Its also not surprising that this area's wares are sometimes mistaken for products made in Maine in the 1800's and likewise, Maine products are sometimes mistaken for western New York wares; both of these states are known for its daring colorful glazes today that for some reason shared similar styles and glaze ideas despite the huge gap that separated the two states.

 19th Century Red Earthenware Jug Possibly Made in Western New York

Potter Not Known

Recently Discovered in Bristol, Vt

Stands 9 3/8" Tall

 Another View of the Glaze

 And Another View of the Glaze

 View of the Broken Handle

 View of the Interior

View of the Base

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...

A Red Earthenware Mug with a Strong History to a Family of Potters Who Worked in New Hampshire in the 1700's and the 1800's

In the past, when I have been honored to have been invited to visit private red earthenware, stoneware and general antique collections in New England and in others parts of the country - I have always found myself amazed at the provenance that accompany some of these pieces. I've heard some collectors say that it is among the aspects they look for when choosing a piece of pottery for their collection. There are even some collectors who prefer a strong provenance as much as any other feature an object has to offer. It is also a facet that museums often cherish.

A strong provenance - whether it comes directly from a family, local ownership, an important collection, a museum, an important dealer, or even from a direct descendant of a potter can add a charming appeal to an already wonderful piece of pottery. For example, imagine finding an over-sized black glazed eighteenth-century red earthenware tankard with slip decoration at an estate sale in an attic filled with cobwebs or in a dirty cellar with a dirt floor in a western Massachusetts house that hadn't been touched for hundreds of years. Imagine if you can - if that mug had been passed down through the family (with proper documentation) indicating the mug had been once used by Paul Revere at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, Massachussets just before the Battle of Bunker Hill broke out on June 17, 1775. Yes, I know - that's highly unlikely to find such an object with a history that is equivalent, but it is lesser histories such as the one that I am about to tell, which add an even greater amount of importance to an item that already holds some relevance today. I would love to pursue such examples more-often; however, objects with such histories are difficult to find today with the understanding that experienced collectors have actively sought out such objects for decades now - and it's completely understandably why.

I recently acquired a red earthenware barrel-formed mug with an absolutely wonderful history; the most recent owner (I am not using her name for privacy reasons) told me she was given the mug by her mother, Madeline Osborn Merrill. Previously, the mug was handed down through their family for roughly the last two-centuries. Incredibly, she and her mother are direct descendants of the potter, Jacob Osborn, who helped establish the Osborn Pottery in Loudon, New Hampshire in the eighteenth-century. The mug is reportedly tied directly to the Osborn Pottery in Boscowan, New Hampshire in either the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century. I will explain this all in a moment.

In my last report, I discussed the Osborn Pottery in the Gonic neighborhood of Rochester, New Hampshire. Below is a map that shows the Loudon, Boscowan and Gonic Potteries with Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine shown as a reference. These potteries all worked simultaneously in the nineteenth-century. I do not know if there was any known cooperation between the three businesses or whether each worked independently, but it would make sense if there was some kind of cooperation going on. There was also a small Osborn business in Dover, New Hampshire that is also indicated on the map.

Map Showing Four Osborn-Family Businesses in New Hampshire

Kittery, Me and Portsmouth, NH are Shown for Reference Points

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

History
The Osborn-family was of a Quaker religion. The family's potter's business originated in South Danvers, Massachusetts (today known as Peabody) in the early-eighteenth-century by Joseph Osborn (from England), who was the first of the family's potters - and he is among the small group of potters who helped establish the important red earthenware industry in Essex County that flourished for two-centuries. Dozens of family members are credited with training and working at the Osborn Pottery in the 1700's and 1800's; however, some of these family members chose to branch out establishing their own businesses in New Hampshire. Osborn family members are also credited with working elsewhere in New England at other potter's businesses like southeastern Massachusetts and Exeter, New Hampshire. The Osborns are considered to be one of the largest potter's families to work in America before 1900. At least forty-five family members are known to have entered the potter's trade today; although, I am confident there are additional family members who are not yet credited today.

To get back to the story of this mug: Jacob Osborn traveled from South Danvers where he married Abigail Simpson (a name that is also tied to my family's history in the 1800's) in New Hampshire - and together, they had a son, John Osborn (died: 1820), who is responsible (entirely? versus partially?) for establishing an Osborn Pottery in Boscowan, New Hampshire. It is at this pottery in Boscowan that the mug is said to have been made (likely by John Osborn) and as a result, I feel this mug carries an incredible history with it since it has descended through the Osborn family until now. I came across it because it was for sale somewhat privately directly from the woman I mention above, who now lives in northern Virginia.

Despite my knowledge of similar examples of surviving pottery known today with histories like this in the collections I cite above - this is the first opportunity that I have ever had to purchase an example of utilitarian pottery with a direct tie to a potter's business and a potter's family in New England. I'm thrilled!

This is a link to a report that Madeline Osborn Merrill wrote about her family's heritage and legacy in the New Hampshire potter's industry for the magazine, Old Time New England many years ago. This is a pretty cool mug to own considering it is tied to all this important history!

Late 18th or Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Mug Likely Made in Boscowan, NH
Mug Reportedly Made at the Osborn Pottery in Boscowan, NH

Reportedly Descended Through Family Related to the Osborn Family of Potters in NH

Mug has Direct Ties to Potters in Boscown and Loudon, NH
Mug Also has Ties to Potters Who Worked Elsewhere in New England

Ca. 1780-1820

Stands 6 1/4" Tall

View of the Handle

View of the Interior

View of the Base

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...

The Rest of My Day Picking in Central New Hampshire Last Weekend

Aside from the great nineteenth-century Thomas Truxton Kendrick red earthenware jar (made in Hollis, Maine) with the word, STARCH stenciled across the front in slip that I discovered on Saturday - I also found a few other pieces that I thought would make for an interesting discussion. As I indicated in my most recent report, I went out picking in New Hampshire last weekend in Rochester, Laconia, Concord and Manchester; I feel I did okay in a couple of the collectible-type shops.

Both of the products that will be discussed today were found in shops in Rochester. I'm not making any reference between these products, but Rochester is a known place today that employed potters (and potters businesses) in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, which included the well-known pottery in the city's Gonic neighborhood.

This pottery was conceivably located strategically - its possible the Gonic Pottery could have exported its red earthenware a few miles southeast into places like Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine in the 1800's. In general, I assume the company made its wares for local consumers and possibly merchant's in New Hampshire and possibly in southern Maine.

Map Showing Rochester, NH

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

For me personally, red earthenware made at the Gonic Pottery is a bit confusing to understand today. I believe some nearby products made at competing businesses are often mistaken for wares from the Gonic business. The confusion is sometimes the result of red earthenware decorated with colorful halos or bursts in the glaze possibly caused from impurities found in either the local clays or the glaze. There are a number of products like this that are attributed to Gonic today, but I'm suspicious of this. I think the confusion partially comes from similar glazed wares made elsewhere in New Hampshire and in Essex County, Massachusetts in the 1800's. The only products that I know of today that are related to the Gonic business in a museum setting with an attribution are kept in the Lura Woodside Watkins collection at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Historic New England's storage facility in Haverhill, Massachusetts and at the New Hamsphire Historical Society in Concord.

What I find especially interesting about the compare and contrast that can be done with these museum products is the variation in forms seen in especially the Gonic attributed jugs; I can only speak for myself, which I will admit I sometimes tend to associate a single form to any given potter's business; however, as my studies have progressed - I have found that many potter's businesses often produced multiple forms of any particular style, as in the case with the jugs in the various museums seen below. These are typically the pieces I would use today if I were attempting to build a Gonic attribution to a certain piece I may have come across.

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Mug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History - The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 View of the Handle

Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History - The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History - The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

View of the Handle

Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History - The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Haverhill, Mass.

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Food Mold

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jar

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH

 19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH

19th Century Gonic, NH Attributed Red Earthenware Jug

Ca. 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH

The first shop I stopped at in Rochester was called, Union Street Antiques and Collectibles. Previously, I had never entered this shop before; in-fact, I had never even heard of it until I came across it on a Google search. I thought the store may have some potential considering there were one-hundred-and-fifty active dealers who sell out of it at any given time. The shop was mostly a collectible-type shop with twentieth-century products; however, buried in a dealer's booth - I found a fascinating object, which the dealer called a pie vent. I had never heard of such a device before, but everything about the glaze, the way the vent was produced and the overall form appeared right to me. I couldn't resist - so I purchased it.

Union Street Antiques & Collectibles - Rochester, NH

The Red Earthenware Pie Vent as I Found it in the Store

From what I have read: a pie vent can also be called a pie bird, a pie whistle, a pie funnel or a pie chimney. The form reportedly originated in Europe and its purpose was to help allow the heat escape from a freshly cooked pie and really regulate the overall temperature. A vent was placed directly in the middle of the pie - and holes at the end of the vent not inserted into the pie would allow the heat to rise up through it. The goal with such a device was to protect the pie's crust from the filling overheating, which could cause damage to the crust. I have never seen anything like this before. Everything about it appears correct to me for red earthenware made in New England in the nineteenth-century. The form seems like a style that would have been more likely manufactured by a country potter rather than an urban potter. It's very difficult to say where such a form was made since I don't really have any precedent to work with; none-the-less, I think this is a wonderful piece! The only possible insight I can give into this product is that brown/dark maroon glazes seem to have been popular with some potters in the central part of New Hampshire in the nineteenth-century.

Note: In-hand, the pie vent appears like a dark-brown or possibly a very-dark maroon glaze; however, when photographed with a flash the ensuing glaze color was brought out. This is a characteristic I sometimes see with American-made black glazed utilitarian red earthenware that it actually takes on a purplish color when photographed with a flash. I actually see this with some Pennsylvania black glazed products (but I don't find it to be exclusive to Pennsylvania), which leads me to believe that it my have been caused by an element added to the glaze recipe that forced this photographic reaction to happen in some of the state's black glazed wares. The result I am seeing with the pie vent appears to be a different kind of reaction to the camera's flash. I can also see some comparison with the glaze on the pie vent to the glaze on the second product (red earthenware pan) I write about later in this report.

 19th Century Red Earthenware Pie Vent

Recently Found in a Shop in Rochester, NH

Stands 3" Tall
I Presume this is a New England Product Possibly Made in New Hampshire

 View of the Side

 View of the Side

 View of the Holes Punched into the Pie Vent

 View of the Interior

 View of the Pie Vent Upside Down

Another View of the Interior

I have placed the pie vent next to a mug that I believe could have been made in central New Hampshire in the 1800's below. The glaze looks similar with no camera flash and also similar with a camera flash. The mug was recently found in a quality group antique shop in southern Vermont. It stands six-inches tall and I also believe the glaze on this mug seems like it could be related (by color at least) to the glaze seen on the upcoming pan.

Mug and Pie Vent with No Camera Flash

Pie Vent and Mug with No Flash

Both Exhibit a Similar Glaze

Mug and Pie Vent with a Camera Flash

Pie Vent and Mug with Camera Flash

Both Exhibit a Similar Glaze

The second store I stopped at in Rochester was called, Trinkets and Treasures. I have been in this shop once in the past - and even though I have never found anything in it - I still decided to stop. Luckily I did because it proved to be a little different this time around. It's here that I discovered a large damaged red earthenware pan sitting on top of a modern piece of furniture in the shop's discount section on the second floor. The pan appears to me like it could date from the eighteenth-century. Normally, I would have passed on such a pan depending on the price, but for only fifteen-dollars - I couldn't go wrong.

What I really like about this piece beyond the glaze and the form - is how the rim has been glazed over. Typically, I see pans made in a number of places today in northern New England with an unglazed rim. The fact that this rim is glazed makes it appear special to me.

Trinkets and Treasures - Rochester, NH

Trinkets and Treasures - Rochester, NH

I believe this pan could be related to the early Clark family of potters, who lived and worked in Lyndeboro, New Hampshire in the late 1700's into the 1800's (but I'm not positive of that). The family also worked in Concord in the nineteenth-century.

The Lyndeboro business was started by Peter Clark, who worked in Braintree, Massachusetts before the American Revolution. After America gained its Independence, Peter Clark moved north to Lyndeboro in the late-eighteenth-century. He continued to work here until his death when he was later followed by generations of family members into the 1880's.

The glaze on this pan is spectacular! The reason I suggest Lyndeboro as a possibility is due to the appearance of a fluid-like glaze (which is also seen on the mug pictured above). This kind of glaze I have seen attributed to this business before and its not a common glaze-type in New England. I have taken a close-up photo of what I mean by this below; Massachusetts potter, Rick Hamelin is the person who actually taught me this word not too long ago. The damage is obvious on this piece, but its still a wonderful example of skillfully-made pottery that probably originated in New England. I have never quite seen anything like this pan before.

18th/19th Century Red Earthenware Pan with a Colorful Glaze

Recently Found in a Shop in Rochester, NH

Stands 3 1/2" Tall

Measures 17 3/8" Across

Bottom of the Hand-Thrown Pan

What I Mean by a Fluid-Like Glaze
I Have Better Examples of this Type Glaze - But I Wanted to Show what I Mean on this Pan

Before this report ends: I would like to give a brief follow-up to the Merrimac Pottery Company green glazed red earthenware pot made in Newburyport, Massachusetts that I found at a Nan Gurley Antique Show in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few weeks ago - I just realized today, that Historic New England owns a similar example in its storage facility in downtown Haverhill. It's kept with the museum's row of New England-made utilitarian pottery. I had specifically asked the collection managers the origin of this pot - they told me they didn't know, but they also said it was donated to Historic New England decades ago. I was surprised to come across it - I actually now remember a while back trying to figure out the maker for this jar. Now I know! Overall, the pot in Haverhill seems to be a very-similar pot to the pot I purchased in Portsmouth. There are slight variations; however, that's expected with anything that's hand-made and hand-decorated.

 Early 20th Century Merrimac Pottery Company Attributed Red Earthenware Pot - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. 1897-1908

Stands 14" Tall

Purchased at a Nan Gurley Antique Show in Portsmouth, NH

Early 20th Century Merrimac Pottery Company Attributed Red Earthenware Pot - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. 1897-1908

Probably Similar Height to the Pot Shown Above

Photo Courtesy: Historic New England - Haverhill, Ma

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...