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.

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