EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: An Unusual Red Earthenware Creamer Discovered on Long Island (NY) Almost a Decade Ago

Saturday, March 28, 2015

An Unusual Red Earthenware Creamer Discovered on Long Island (NY) Almost a Decade Ago

I'm not sure, why, but I don't believe I have ever written about Long Island red earthenware or stoneware made in the seventeenth, eighteenth or the nineteenth-centuries on this website. It's a subject that I have always had a great interest in - especially, some of the earlier businesses. The industry produced stoneware and red earthenware, which was often decorated in stamped or hand-drawn slip. The wares made in the nineteenth-century appear to have been a strong part of the domestic imports that were shipped into New York City. Interestingly, I have even heard of the innovation that was adopted by the potters on Long Island in the 1800's; there are reports that suggest some of these potters embraced the idea of invention when it came to transportation. When the local railroad system became available - some of Long Island's potters used it to transport their wares to merchants or suppliers elsewhere in the state. The stoneware made on Long Island was not only limited to traditional utilitarian blue and gray stoneware, either; there was also art ware and brown ware produced in the late-nineteenth-century. Some of the art ware is decorated with exotic animals, which was a characteristic that was also embraced by some of the cutting-edge art potters, who were employed in New England in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-centuries. Long Island was really ultimately a major center for utilitarian pottery production in America. For more on this subject, I suggest the book, 'Useful Art: Long Island Pottery..'

When I first began collecting red earthenware more than a decade ago, I purchased what I liked. I didn't know a lot about specific potters or what was made where; however, my interests quickly evolved to focus on region, maker and form - and also, the aesthetics from the period.

During my beginner years of collecting, I purchased this red earthenware creamer from a home on Long Island. I solely bought it because I liked the form, which I now believe may be an imitation of an English or European creamer. This creamer does not exactly fit in with what I know as 'Long Island Pottery' today; although, it doesn't appear like it could be a New England-made product, either. I pick this piece up every so-often - and I try to figure out where it was made - to this day, I am still stumped. It is hand-thrown with an applied handle and the base seems to have been pinched inward by the potter. The glaze is colorful with a brighter glaze on the interior that shows shades of green. Overall, I think this is a charming piece that I have never been able to determine a region, state or maker; although, I am quite confident that it is American-made in the 1800's.