An Interesting Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Object Discovered a Few Weeks Ago at the Londonderry, New Hampshire Flea Market

A few weeks ago, my three-year old niece, Alexis and myself visited the Londonderry, New, Hampshire flea market out of simple curiosity - I had never been to this particular flea market before, which was kind of an 'everything goes' flea market where dealers could sell anything they wished as long as it was legal to do so (i.e. no illegal knock offs, etc.). Basically, I wanted to see what this flea market was all about. And, of course, my niece, was also up for the trip - she's always ready to go picking with me as long as she finds something that she likes, too. Overall, it was a nice atmosphere that included a yard sale appearance crossed with a farmer's market with a small amount of antiques mixed in with the group.

The Londonderry Flea Market is held in a large field that is comparable to 'some' of the fields at the outdoor antique shows that are held three-time each year (May, July and September) in Brimfield, Massachusetts. I was merely curious as to how this flea market appeared. I wanted to know if it was something that I should visit more frequently - and, my niece was on a mission to find Barbie Dolls (unfortunately, she didn't find any). I would say that we walked around for a bit. Maybe an hour. We didn't see a lot, but I did buy a slip decorated red earthenware flask or harvest jug for only three-dollars that seems to be a hybrid of such early forms as the red earthenware ring flask or jug, the red earthenware ring vase and the red earthenware harvest jug. Most of these objects were meant to be carried on a person's arm or shoulder by inserting their arm through the ring such as the case with the object that I discovered.

Regrettably, I have, yet to get to the bottom of this object's origin; however, I feel it is probably a twentieth-century product that was either made by an American potter, a Canadian potter or a European potter, but that's yet to be proven, either. But, I guess it could be earlier, too. Personally, I thought that it was such a skillfully made product with a beautiful slip decoration that I couldn't really say 'no' to the dealer's ridiculously cheap asking price of only $3. The dealer told me he found the object at a local estate sale. The object is also such a rare form to own today in an eighteenth or nineteenth-century product that I figured it would help as a study object for my collection. I should also mention that the interior of the jug is slightly glazed, which suggests (to me) that it may have been intended to be used to hold a liquid like its predecessors would have been - rather, that merely serving as a household decorative commodity.

A similar form is pictured in Massachusetts antiques dealer, Brian Cullity's museum booklet 'Slipped and Glazed: Regional American Redware' from the Sandwich Museum on Cape Cod published in 1991, which is described as "a rather uncommon form of (red) earthenware and this particular example is made even more exceptional by the addition of a footed base. "

My Niece, Alexis with Her Finds for the Day at the Londonderry, NH Flea Market

The Decoy was Made in Southern Maine

The Red Earthenware Ring Flask or Harvest Jug is Held Around Her Shoulder

Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Ring Bottle or Harvest Jug
Maker and Origin Not Completely Known
Stands 13 1/8" Tall
Found at the Londonderry, NH Flea Market

Dealer Told Me He Recently Found the Object in a New Hampshire Home  

Another View of the Jug

 Another View of the Jug

 Another View of the Jug

View of the Base

Ring Flask or Jug

What I am going to do now is show you the forms that I believe influenced the ring flask or harvest jug that I found at the flea market - this first object, is commonly called a red earthenware ring flask or jug today. This example was sold through Crocker Farm in Sparks, Maryland in 2013 selling for more than three-thousand dollars. The object was described as "a nineteenth-century circular jug with an applied spout with drips of yellow and brown slip over an orange clay ground." This jug was suggested to have been made in either North Carolina or Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth-century. It's certainly, a rare object with an even rarer decoration to find anywhere today.

 19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Jug Attributed to North Carolina or Pennsylvania

Measures 8 3/4" Tall

Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm - Sparks, MD

Another View of the Flask or Jug

Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm - Sparks, MD

Ring Vase

This second object sold through Pook & Pook Auctions in Downington, Pennsylvania in 2007 for nearly six-thousand dollars. Pook's described it as "a footed ring vase profusely decorated with yellow, green and black slip flowers and squiggly lines. The vase is dated in slip '1815' and it is also initialed in slip near the base." I should mention that this ring vase also shows a similar standing form like that which is seen on the object that I found at the flea market a few weeks ago.

 Early 19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Ring Vase Made in Pennsylvania

Possibly From Berks County or Montgomery County, PA

The Flask is Dated '1815'

Stands 8 3/4" Tall

Photo Courtesy: Pook & Pook Auctions - Downington, PA

 Another View of the Vase

Photo Courtesy: Pook & Pook Auctions - Downington, PA

Another View of the Vase

Photo Courtesy: Pook & Pook Auctions - Downington, PA

Harvest Jug

Lastly, is a single object in this group lot photo that just recently sold as part of the Earl Curry Collection of red earthenware at Willis Henry's auction in Manchester, New Hampshire earlier this summer. This was a form of red earthenware that was made in the early 1800's with the intent that the object could store drinking water or really any type of liquid for outdoor consumption. These forms are commonly referred to today as 'field jugs' or 'harvest jugs.' This particular example is missing its handle, but it would have appeared in a similar overhanging fashion like the jug that I bought at the flea market.

Harvest jugs were made all-over America in the nineteenth-century - a quick story that I would like to share was told to me by a friend of mine, West Newbury, Massachusetts antiques collector and dealer, Paul DeCoste, who found a very rare and colorful red earthenware jug that was made in southeastern Massachusetts in the early-nineteenth-century in a junk shop in Rowley, Massachusetts in the 1990's. The jug eventually sold as part of the important Paulette and Hilary Nolan Collection at Northeast Auctions Summer Americana Sale in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2004. The smaller jug that is pictured below is related to the jug that Paul DeCoste discovered in the mid-1990's. This is a rare form to own today that was made by both red earthenware and stoneware potters in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries.

Small 19th Century Red Earthenware Harvest Jug Likely Produced in Southeastern Massachusetts

The Jug is Missing its Carrying Handle

Circa 1790-1830

Stands 6" Tall

Ex-Earl Curry Collection - Massachusetts

Photo Courtesy: Willis Henry Auctions - Marshfield, MA 

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