EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: An Interesting Cobalt-Glazed Red Earthenware Jug that was Recently Discovered in New Hampshire

Monday, December 21, 2015

An Interesting Cobalt-Glazed Red Earthenware Jug that was Recently Discovered in New Hampshire

I found the following blue-glazed (the color reminds me of a blue robin's egg) red earthenware jug in an antique shop last Friday, while I was out Christmas shopping and picking for pottery near central New Hampshire. I took a gamble on this small hand-sized object; however, everything about it appeared right to me for what should be expected of a utilitarian red earthenware jug produced in the nineteenth-century.

When I quickly analyzed this object in the store - I noticed that it slightly imitated the form of an American-made stoneware jug from the 1800's. It also appeared that the base had been covered in a clear-glaze.

Honestly, I'm not sure where this jug was made, but I do know that similar objects were produced in places like western New York and Pennsylvania in the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries - these areas incorporated cobalt into some of the glaze techniques - and, in some cases, the potter was actually intentionally trying to imitate stoneware (Lorenzo Johnson / Erie County, New York).

The most impressive example of red earthenware that I have seen decorated with some blue in the glaze is a large dish that was uncovered in Philadelphia within a mid-eighteenth-century archaeological context. The reason that I am mentioning the Philadelphia-made dish is because it seems to be the earliest known example of American-made red earthenware that was decorated with a rare blue-glaze (I assume it as cobalt). Typically, this is a glaze-color that is not known to have been used at most American red earthenware potter's businesses in the eighteenth or nineteenth-centuries. Instead, it was a method commonly applied by European - and, later, American stoneware potters that goes back centuries.

The businesses that probably applied a cobalt-type of glaze the most on red earthenware produced in Pennsylvania were likely the John Bell Pottery in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and the Stahl Pottery in Powder Valley, Pennsylvania. I should note that this was not a regular practice, either - a cobalt-type of glaze on any kind of red earthenware product is very-rare to find today.

Unfortunately, I don't think the following jug is related to either business since the John Bell Pottery and the Stahl Pottery signed the vast majority of the products that they produced. The John Bell Pottery often incorporated a company stamp onto nearly everything that was produced from simple crocks to the more elaborate objects - while, the Stahl family actually inscribed the base on many of the objects that they produced. The jug that I found in New Hampshire does not bear any type of potter's mark.

I've also considered an Ontario origin such as the Eby Pottery in Waterloo Township, Ontario - the Ontario province was a region that had strong ties to the Pennsylvania-Germans, which saw many pioneers migrate from the Pennsylvania region to Ontario in the 1800's. Pennsylvania-German potters were very-much a part of this migration - and, ultimately, these potters played a heavy influence in Ontario-made pottery in the nineteenth-century.

Furthermore, I would probably suggest that this jug was made during the circa 1840 to 1880 period, but I guess a twentieth-century argument could also be had since I don't know a lot about it. After that - I really don't know where this object was made, but I do have some theories; however, I am not convinced of any of those ideas, just, yet.

Admittedly, I am most-curious to know, whether, this jug could be related to the western New York and Ontario region during the 1840 to 1880 period that I cite above. None-the-less, this is a neat little jug that really captured my attention when I first saw it sitting in a glass case among a group of glass bottles and common red earthenware. I'm hopeful, that, with a little research, this jug, will turn out to be something special.