The Northeast Auctions sale featured the Important Furniture Collection of Jill and Mickey Baten, the Mr. and Mrs. Jerome W. Blum Collection and the Collection of James Huberty. This is a sale that could have easily been featured at New York's Antiques Celebration in New York City each January. The sale included examples of red earthenware made by William Pecker in Merrimacport, Massachusetts, John Corliss in Woolwich, Maine, the potteries in Norwalk, Connecticut, southeastern Massachusetts - and, an outstanding collection of stoneware mostly made by upstate New York makers in the nineteenth-century. However, the utilitarian pottery was only a small portion of the sale that ultimately attracted a slew of national phone bidders for the collection of furniture, folk art, English ceramics, fine art and nautical antiques.
I previewed the Northeast sale last weekend when I visited Portsmouth with my three-year-old niece, Alexis. I made the promise that if she would allow me to preview the sale that I would have a picnic with her at historic Prescott Park located next to the Piscataqua River. Luckily, she agreed. Ultimately, this was a historic sale that featured prominent and equally important antiques from eighteenth and nineteenth-century American craftsmen representing both urban and country artisans.
The Conestoga sale is what I would like to focus on today, which sold the sixth installment of the Harry B. Hartman estate, who is a longtime Pennsylvania-based antiques collector and dealer. Previous sales from this collection have included a number of wonderful examples of Pennsylvania-made red earthenware, stoneware, furniture and folk art.
Today's sale, combined a great selection of red earthenware that was mostly made in the Mid-Atlantic Region; although, there was also a small slip decorated double-handled red earthenware bowl that came without an attribution or any suggestion of a place of origin. Conestoga Auctions described the bowl as "a 19th century yellow slip decorated redware pottery footed bowl with a molded rim, two applied loop handles and a molded base.
Undoubtedly, the bowl is American-made, but (to me) it appears more like an eighteenth-century product rather than an object that was produced in the 1800's.
It is currently unknown how Harry Hartman obtained this bowl, but it is assumed that he had owned it for a number of years prior to today's sale. I'm not convinced it was made in Pennsylvania, either. It doesn't strike me as having been a product that was made in Philadelphia or in the Pennsylvania counties. Despite the lack of attribution, the bowl did very-well today selling for $1,500 before the 18% buyer's premium and sales tax were added.
Note: The pictures of the bowl may not be how the bowl appears in-hand. These are all professional photographs with professional lighting with a white background. The colors (seen here) may be brighter.
Appears Like an 8th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Bowl
Stands 5" Tall
Measures 6 1/2" in Diameter at the Rim
Harry B. Hartman Collection
Photo Courtesy: Conestoga Auctions - Manheim, PA
Another View of the Bowl
Photo Courtesy: Conestoga Auctions - Manheim, PA
View of the Base
Photo Courtesy: Conestoga Auctions - Manheim, PA
I held off with writing this report about this specific object until after it sold because I didn't know what the reaction would be to this comparison. The slip decoration (which I assume is stamped) seen on the double handled bowl is similar to the group of objects that are shown below, which were all excavated in Charlestown, Massachusetts as part of the archaeology conducted before the Big Dig Project in the 1980's. These artifacts were all made in the Charlestown, Massachusetts potters industry before it was burned at the Battle of Bunker Hill of June 17, 1775. All-in-all, there were dozens of potters who were employed in this industry in the 1700's, which was established by the English-born and English-trained potter, Philip Drinker in the 1630's when he basically established what is referred to today as New England's first known potter's business. The Drinker Pottery eventually laid the foundation for what would ignite into an industry in Charlestown in the 1700's. Unfortunately, very-few examples of Charlestown-made red earthenware are known to have survived today outside of an archaeological context. There are even fewer whole examples known today.
The curved 'S' type slip decoration seen on the bowl of discussion seems similar to the pan shown below that was excavated from a privy at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown in a mid-eighteenth-century context. The 'S' type slip decoration is at least worth a comparison.
The 'U' type slip decoration seen on the bowl of discussion is similar to some of the slip decoration seen on a porringer, a small chamber pot sherd and a chamber pot that were also recovered at the Three Cranes Tavern in various eighteenth-century contexts in Charlestown (see below).
A double-handled lidded bowl is also shown below that sold at a Tim Gould Auction in Augusta, Maine in November of 2014 that was identified as likely having been made in Charlestown around the mid-eighteenth-century.
18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan Recovered in Charlestown, MA
Circa Mid-18th Century
Measures Approximately 12" in Diameter
Recovered from a Privy at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, MA
18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Sherd Recovered in Charlestown, MA
Circa Early-Mid-18th Century
Recovered from a Privy at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, MA
(Left) 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Bowl that Sold in 2014
Sold at a Tim Gould Auction in November of 2014
Sold at a Tim Gould Auction in November of 2014
Identified as Likely a Charlestown, MA Product
Circa Mid-18th Century
Stands Approximately 8" Tall
(Right) 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Porringer Recovered in Charlestown, MA
Circa Mid-18th Century
Measures Approximately 4 1/2" in Diameter
Recovered from a Privy at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, MA
(Right) 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Recovered in Charlestown, MA
Circa Mid-18th Century
Measures Approximately 8" in Diameter
Recovered from a Privy at the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, MA
I can't say definitively whether the bowl that sold at Conestoga Auctions today was made in New England in Charlestown or maybe even in Pennsylvania; however, I will admit that I have been looking at this auction listing for over a month now wondering whether it was an eighteenth-century product that could be related to Charlestown's industry before June 17, 1775.
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