EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Continued Study of the 18th & 19th Century North Yarmouth, Maine Potter's Industry

Thursday, February 4, 2016

The Continued Study of the 18th & 19th Century North Yarmouth, Maine Potter's Industry

According to M. Lelyn Branin's book, 'The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine,' "One of the most important of the early (red) earthenware producing centers in Maine during the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century was the coastal town of North Yarmouth, later known after 1849 as Yarmouth, situated about twelve miles east of Portland. At least one pottery is known to have been in operation there as early as 1791. Good deposits of clay suitable for making redware and bricks were available close at hand, and an expanding market for the ware probably existed locally and in nearby towns to the eastward along the coast."

I truly believe the North Yarmouth industry is a very-important potter's center to understand today in respect to the influence that it delivered to many of Maine's red earthenware potters. The industry was strategically located near Portland, where a number of wares were likely shipped in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. There were at least five active potter's businesses in North Yarmouth in the 1800's - and, most of these businesses are not completely understood today.

A prominent Maine collector once said to me that there are a certain number of Maine potter's businesses known today, and many of the wares made in Maine, which survive are grouped into the output of the known potter's businesses. Rather, there are other potter's businesses that also existed, which are not really known today - and, those businesses also need to be taken into consideration. I believe the North Yarmouth industry is responsible for some of these surviving objects today that may be attributed elsewhere.

Shown below are a group of objects, which I have always felt could be related to the North Yarmouth industry. I have my reasons 'why' I suggest this attribution, such as form and glaze; although, an attribution should never be built on glaze alone.

Colorful Stew Pot: Owned by the Bidwell House Museum in Monterey, Massachusetts, attributed to Maine, but no further information provided.

Stew Pot: Purchased at a Michael March auction in Essex, Massachusetts almost five-years ago, discovered in an old home in Rockport, Massachusetts prior to the auction.

Colorful Jug: Purchased from Connecticut collector and dealer, Lewis Scranton; however, he said he obtained it from a Maine dealer, who said the jug was found in Maine.

Colorful Stew Pot