A Maine-Made Red Earthenware Jug with Ties to the Important Massachusetts Author, Lura Woodside Watkins

I have exciting news to share - I have been given permission to showcase some of the objects owned by a redware collector, who lives in a circa 1690 house located north of Boston.  Many of these objects have fascinating provenances from years ago. This first object actually has ties to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins, who wrote the important book that was published in 1950, 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares.'

This jug was purchased from the late Hellen Barrows in Byfield, Massachusetts in the late-1990's - she lived in the Harriet Livermore (1788-1868) House in Byfield.  Livermore, a well-known female preacher, was also the daughter of Edward St. Loe Livermore, a United States State Representative in Massachusetts - and, the granddaughter of Samuel Livermore, who was a United States Senator from New Hampshire. The collector actually remembers this jug as being kept in the fireplace before it was purchased.

Hellen Barrows was also a close friend of Lura Woodside Watkins, who lived a few miles south of Byfield in Middleton, Massachusetts. The two were good friends - they actually went picking together - it is possible that this jug was discovered while the two were antiquing in New England sometime between the 1950's or 1960's and the 1980's. None-the-less, this is also a jug that has never been seen publicly before.

This jug likely originates from one of the potter's businesses that were located in southern Maine in the nineteenth-century. It has been said that this jug may have been made by the potter, John Alld (1811-1865) in Hollis, Maine; however, I am not convinced of that attribution since the potter's businesses in this part of Maine are not completely defined today with 'who made what' and 'what was made where.' But, it is slightly similar to a green-glazed jug that was attributed to Alld that just sold at Tim Gould's auction in Augusta, Maine last month for roughly $8,000. That jug was purchased by a longtime prominent collector.

The glaze on the following jug is absolutely beautiful - it is decorated with a beautiful variegated and speckled green-glaze on top of a yellowish-colored glaze. The form is actually reminiscent to jugs that were made in the nineteenth-century by the Osborn family in South Danvers (today Peabody), Massachusetts - and, throughout New Hampshire in towns like Gonic, Dover, Boscowan and Loudon. It is possible that there may be an influence found in this jug that began with the Osborn family - before, it later spread to whatever potter's business it was produced at in southern Maine during the 1820-1860 period. Regardless, of any theory or facts - this is a wonderful rare Maine-made object.

 19th Century Red Earthenware Jug Likely Made in Southern Maine

Said to Have Possibly Been Made by John Alld in Hollis, ME

Circa 1820-1860

Stands Approximately 6"-7" Tall

 View of the Handle

 Another View of the Jug

Another View of the Jug

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...