EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Possibly, a Significant Discovery Today of Red Earthenware that may have Been Made in Either New Hampshire, New York or Ontario in the 1800's

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Possibly, a Significant Discovery Today of Red Earthenware that may have Been Made in Either New Hampshire, New York or Ontario in the 1800's

I had to pick up an object for a friend of mine today on the New Hampshire seacoast - rather, than just going to that one shop I decided to stop at a few antique shops and thrift-type stores in the Hampton Falls, New Hampshire area. And, I'm sure glad I made that decision!

In the only other antique shop that I visited, I found a hand-modeled red earthenware ram that possess a number of related characteristics that are found on another red earthenware ram that was suggested to have been made in Morganville, New York in the nineteenth-century by James D. Julia Auctions in Fairfield, Maine in 2010. That ram had been inscribed 'L.H.' on one of the ram's sides, which presumably stands for the potter who made it, but it could also possibly have stood for the person who the ram was made for - never-the-less, if this information is accurate, the following ram seems to be a significant example of whimsical or 'end-of-the-day' western New York pottery that dates from the 1800's.

19th Century Red Earthenware Ram Said to Have Been Made in Morganville, NY

Stands 3 1/2" Tall

Measures 4 1/2" Long

Photo Courtesy: James D. Julia Auctions - Fairfield, ME

View of One Side of the Ram's Sides

Seen on the Left Side is the Initial 'L.H.'

Photo Courtesy: James D. Julia Auctions - Fairfield, ME

View of the Face

Photo Courtesy: James D. Julia Auctions - Fairfield, ME

View of the Feet and the Belly

Photo Courtesy: James D. Julia Auctions - Fairfield, ME

You will see that the whimsical red earthenware ram that I found today possess the same face, body and feet as the example that sold through James D. Julia in Maine; however, this example is stamped on the belly 'L.G.' The same tool that was used for the lines or the decoration on the ram's horns was used to create the initial on the belly.

According to William C. Ketchum, Jr.'s book, 'Potters and Potteries of New York State: 1650-1900,' "The earliest redware pottery in Genesee County (New York) and one of the first in western New York was established in Morganville, in Bethany Township about thirty miles southwest of Rochester, New York. The presumptive founders, Fortunatus and Lyman Gleason, were from Westmoreland, New Hampshire (just west of Keene, New Hampshire); they may have been trained there, as Lura Woodside Watkins refers to a "modest pottery" in that community about 1830 (Early New England Potters and Their Wares).

While the precise date remains unknown, it is likely that the pottery (in Morganville) was operating by 1830 or soon thereafter.

Fortunatus Gleason was still practicing his trade in 1850 - he is listed as a potter in the census of that year - and continued to reside in Morganville until his death in the early 1870s. Lyman, however, was no longer in the community. He had moved to nearby LeRoy, New York in 1840, and sometime later in the decade he emigrated to Canada, where he established a redware factory in Paris, Ontario. In the 1851 census there he was described as a "potter, potash and bath brick maker."

Lyman Gleason's establishment in Paris must have been fairly sizable, because it employed five men in 1851. He maintained the business only until 1857, however, thereafter becoming an innkeeper."

The Morganville Pottery was eventually carried through another family member, Charles Gleason, who is a famed potter today; however, the town eventually saw a few other businesses that established themselves also producing red earthenware in the 1860's period and the years that followed in a time that is probably considered the most prominent period for red earthenware and stoneware production in western New York, the Niagara Peninsula and elsewhere in Ontario.

Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins mentions very-little about Lyman Gleason's production in New Hampshire, in her book, 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares,' "At Westmoreland (New Hampshire), also, in far western New Hampshire (west of Keene, New Hampshire), there was a modest pottery around 1830, where a man with a half-time helper turned out some two hundred dollars' worth of "brown ware" each year. He obtained lead (for his glazes) from Philadelphia, but otherwise nothing (else) is known about him."

Map Shows Westmoreland, NH

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

Map Shows Morganville, NY

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

Map Shows Paris, Ontario

Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

Presumably, based on the initial ('L.G.'), if this ram is the work of Lyman Gleason, could it have been made in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, Morganville, New York or Paris, Ontario. Regardless, it does closely match some of the features seen on the ram that sold at James D. Julia's in Maine. This could be a very-significant discovery that potentially ties a whimsical 'end-of-the-day' object to a known nineteenth-century potter today with significant ties to western New York and Ontario in the early-to-mid nineteenth-century.