EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Newly Discovered Hand-Thrown Red Earthenware Bowl Found in Essex, Massachusetts

Thursday, May 21, 2015

A Newly Discovered Hand-Thrown Red Earthenware Bowl Found in Essex, Massachusetts

On my way home from work, this past Tuesday - I decided to take a detour and visit a few antique shops in Salem, Massachusetts, Essex, Massachusetts and Rowley, Massachusetts. My drive took me along scenic - and, historic Route 1A as I approached my house in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

My first stop was a shop in downtown Salem, where I discovered a nice nineteenth-century ovoid one-gallon salt-glazed stoneware jug made by Sydney Risley in Norwich, Connecticut for only ten-dollars. From there, I proceeded to a few more shops in the Salem-area, before traveling north through Beverly, Massachusetts and Hamilton, Massachusetts to a dozen-or-so shops located near the waterfront - and, downtown-area of Essex. For anyone, who is familiar with this area - the particular shops that I visited in Essex are located close to the famous restaurant, 'Woodman's of Essex.'

Downtown Salem, MA

Route 1A in Ipswich, MA

Route 1A in Rowley, MA

In Essex, I discovered this very-well executed, hand-thrown, red earthenware handled-bowl in a well-packed four-floor shop owned by an antique dealer, who cleans out homes all-over Massachusetts. The dealer, told me he found the bowl in a house somewhere in Massachusetts, but he had no idea where it was specifically discovered.

The exterior and the base of the bowl are decorated with a variegated brown and green glaze. The interior is decorated with a green slip and a pair of hand-drawn incised flowers. The incised flower petals are shaded with a brownish glaze similar to the glaze that is seen on the exterior of the bowl. On the base, the potter stamped the number '77;' however, the stamp that was used wasn't a number '77,' but rather a single number '7' that was used twice. I'm not sure what the number means, but it may represent the 77th object the potter made for a specific kiln firing.

The overall execution of this bowl, the form and the exterior glaze reminds me of some products that were made by the Stahl family of potters in Pennsylvania in the early-to-mid-twentieth-century; however, the incised decoration reminds me of some styles that Jacob Medinger used to decorate red earthenware plates and platters in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the late-nineteenth-century until 1932. From my perspective, the bowl seems to possess some kind of Pennsylvania influence.

For a historical perspective: Jacob Medinger and the Stahl family name holds a great deal of importance today seeing that they are regarded among the small group of potters, who helped carry the idea of a true 'Pennsylvania-German Potter' into the 1900's.

Pennsylvania antique dealer, Greg Kramer has actively spoken to me about the Stahl family of potters; he regards the family as the last of the true Pennsylvania-German Potters; however, he also considers his long-time friend and neighbor, the late, Lester Breininger (1935-2011) as a modern day potter, who also achieved this prominent status.

However, the style of this bowl also reminds of some products made in Canada in the nineteenth and early-twentieth-centuries. It's definitely an interesting bowl; for now, I am not, yet convinced with what region it should be associated.