EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Red Earthenware Bowl Recovered at Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts Compared to a Bowl that I Purchased in Brimfield, Massachusetts in May of 2015

Thursday, July 9, 2015

A Red Earthenware Bowl Recovered at Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts Compared to a Bowl that I Purchased in Brimfield, Massachusetts in May of 2015

When I first established this website, almost three-years ago in early 2013, I wrote about a wonderful red earthenware bowl that was uncovered at Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts. After I wrote the initial report, the gut feeling was that this particular bowl was made in Essex County, Massachusetts in the early-nineteenth-century. I can't be completely positive of what business it may have been produced at in Essex County; although, the bowl does demonstrate some glaze characteristics that are attributed to the Osborn family of potters in Danvers, Massachusetts today.

According to Boston City Archaeologist, Joe Bagley, "The bowl was excavated atop Flagstaff Hill on Boston Common. Flagstaff Hill is considered the central point of the Common-area. It has been reported that the hill was the encampment at one time of the British Army during the American Revolution. It is also assumed that the hill had a strong Native American and prehistoric history with the shores of the Atlantic Ocean once reaching this area (now, much of this area is filled-in land today). The archeology site of the Common is not contained - and, its potential artifacts are not confined to one period. Results can be broad - beginning with prehistoric artifacts and covering everything in-between right up through modern times."

The reason I am mentioning this bowl, again - is to compare it to a very-similar hand-thrown red earthenware bowl that I purchased from New Hampshire auctioneer and antiques dealer, Joshua Steenburgh at the antique shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts this past May. He told me that he had just picked the bowl from a Massachusetts antiques dealer a few days prior (also in Brimfield) before I bought it. His feeling was that it may have been made in Massachusetts - and, I felt the same way. I agreed.

It just recently dawned on me that the bowl I purchased from Josh is very-possibly related to the bowl found at Boston Common. The size of each bowl, the rim, the foot, the clay color and the overall forms all appear to be related. On the base of the bowl, that I bought from Josh, is the number '922' written in marker, which I believe is an auction number. I believe this bowl was purchased at an important on-site auction in New Hampshire just prior to the antique shows in May. I was actually going to attend this sale, but the timing didn't work out for me.

I have shown a number of pictures of both bowls below. My camera flash made the bowl I purchased from Josh appear a little brighter than it really appears in-hand, but overall, these bowls appear very-similar to me in size and form.

BOSTON COMMON BOWL