EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Rare Massachusetts-Made Red Earthenware Vase that was Acquired on Cape Cod Earlier Today

Friday, May 22, 2015

A Rare Massachusetts-Made Red Earthenware Vase that was Acquired on Cape Cod Earlier Today

Arguably, the most famous of all the potter's businesses that operated in Peabody, Massachusetts in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries was the shop that was located on Central Street, known as the Osborn Pottery. Generations of Osborn family members were employed at this business in the 1700's and the 1800's. Eventually, some of these potters branched out elsewhere in New England establishing their own businesses in New Hampshire - and, also, producing red earthenware for other established potters.

In the early-1860's, the Osborn Pottery was leased to a potter, who was employed at the pottery by the name of Joseph Reed (b. 1809). Reed eventually purchased the business in the mid-1860's. The wares made at the Reed Pottery were similar to that of which was made at the old Osborn business. The expected crocks, pots, jugs, pans and pitchers were all included in the regular output. Although, the face of this business began to slowly change in 1872, when Moses P. Paige came from Winthrop, Maine seeking employment.

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "Four years later, Paige purchased the business."

The Moses Paige Pottery is a business that I am rather fascinated with today; however, I know very-little about this business. Flower pots are a well-documented product from the Paige Pottery, but I have always assumed that this was only a small sampling of the overall output that spanned well-into the twentieth century.

According to Watkins book, 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares,' "Perhaps the most famous craftsmen employed at the Paige Pottery was John Donovan, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1851 and died in 1932. He was a turner for nearly sixty years, having become a skilled potter at the age of fifteen. I once watched John Donovan at work making kitchen bowls. He was able to complete one in from two to three minutes. One by one they would be laid on the drying board. Donovan meantime chatting quietly with his visitors; the board would be carried away, and he would begin another round. Speed was an important consideration in producing utilitarian vessels, but it took phenomenal skill to make them of uniform shape at the same time. During Donovan's day the Paige Pottery sold commercially little herb pots with covers and a lip, almost identical to those made in the early days of potting. They were not made as reproductions, but in the ordinary course of events."

Earlier today, I visited a house on Cape Cod in East Sandwich, Massachusetts; the homeowner, sold me a red earthenware vase that was reportedly made by John Donovan at the Paige Pottery before 1932. He told me that he had acquired the vase from his grandfather, who was close friends with Emeritus F.H. Norton (1896-1992) before he died in 1992. Norton was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but he was also a fourth generation potter. The man, who I purchased the vase from told me that most of Professor Norton's pottery collection was donated to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1971, which also included examples of his work as a potter.

Professor Norton was a descendant of the famed Norton stoneware family in Massachusetts and Vermont in the nineteenth century. It is believed that most of the pottery that he had owned was acquired directly from local potters, who were employed in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. The man told me that it was very-likely that Professor Norton acquired the pieces owned by the MFA in Boston as brand new objects from the Paige Pottery. He also told me that I should really research the Boston Museum of Fine Art's Collection to compare their examples to my new vase.

It's not surprising to say that I was quite excited from this discussion seeing that so little information about the Paige Pottery is known today.

I found in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that there are a few examples of pottery made at the Paige Pottery that do not correspond with what I know about this business today. Apparently, it seems that the Paige Pottery altered its appearance in the twentieth-century to include decorative vases. This makes complete sense, too considering how the presence of the New England potter's industry had changed from what it appeared like in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries to a more decorative and artistic approach beginning in the 1870's - and, moving forward.

Below are the examples of Paige Pottery that the museum owns, which include a few rare stamped and dated pieces that bear Donovan's name.

Objects Owned by Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

20th Century Red Earthenware Vase Made at the Paige Pottery in Peabody, MA

Circa 1920

Possibly Made by John Donovan

Stands 6 3/4" Tall

Gift of Prof. Emeritus F.H. Norton in 1971

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

20th Century Red Earthenware Jug Made by John Donovan at the Paige Pottery in Peabody, MA

Stamped on the Front, 'Made by J.J. Donovan 1930'

Stands 7 1/2" Tall

Gift of Prof. Emeritus F.H. Norton in 1971

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

View of the Stamp

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

20th Century Red Earthenware Pitcher Made by John Donovan at the Paige Pottery in Peabody, MA

Stamped on the Front, 'Made by J.J. Donovan 1930'

Stands 6" Tall

Gift of Prof. Emeritus F.H. Norton in 1971

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

View of the Stamp

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

20th Century Red Earthenware Jug Made by John Donovan at the Paige Pottery in Peabody, MA

Circa 1930

Stands 7 1/2" Tall

Gift of Prof. Emeritus F.H. Norton in 1971

Photo Courtesy: Boston Museum of Fine Arts

These following pieces are all owned by the Peabody, Massachusetts Historical Society; each example is related to the Paige Pottery in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But some of these objects are also the result of Donovan's employment at the Paige Pottery, while others are the product of Paige or other potters, who Paige employed.

Objects Owned by Peabody, Mass. Historical Society