EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A 19th Century Green-Glazed Example of Red Earthenware Discovered in Essex, Massachusetts that was Likely Made by John Bell in Pennsylvania

Friday, March 25, 2016

A 19th Century Green-Glazed Example of Red Earthenware Discovered in Essex, Massachusetts that was Likely Made by John Bell in Pennsylvania

Note: The article from March 28, 2016 indicates that this may be a product that was made by another potter, elsewhere in Pennsylvania in the nineteenth-century.

Yesterday afternoon, I drove to Essex, Massachusetts in search of a matching pair of antique cast-iron garden urns with the idea that warmer spring temperatures are fast-approaching. I had hoped to replace an urn that was damaged over the winter, but after carefully contemplating about the situation, I decided to make use of a pair of unused nineteenth-century cast-iron garden urns that sat in my backyard. Nevertheless, the trip was not at a loss, either. Unexpectedly, I came across an example of nineteenth-century green-glazed red earthenware that was likely made by John Bell (1800-1880) in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania during the circa 1850-1880 period. It was discovered in a shop owned by David Neligan, a quality antique dealer located in downtown Essex.

The object was buried in the back of his shop. It rested on an antique couch, below a large impressive collection of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Delftware, and to the right of a small group of sixteenth-century German stoneware.

Honestly, I was surprised to see such an object. It was not expensive, either. It was more-than affordable priced at less than fifty-dollars.

I asked the woman, who was busy running the shop, if she knew where it was found - unfortunately, she said she could not help me with that information. She did say that it was fairly new to the shop. She told me that David Neligan may have found it locally since it did come into the shop with a few late-nineteenth-century Pennsylvania-made red earthenware turk's molds. I noticed those molds after she had already mentioned them (to me); however, those type of molds are fairly common today. Rather, I do not consider the object that I found to be common. I figure that all of these objects were probably acquired together privately from a local home.

David Neligan Antiques - Essex, Mass.

According to an article written for 'Antiques and the Arts Weekly,' 'Bell Family Pottery at the Washington County (Maryland) Museum of Fine Art,' "John Bell was born in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1800. He became one of America's preeminent potters, using glazes and techniques that many scholars believe are unsurpassed in American red earthenware ceramics of the period (John Bell was also a stoneware potter). Although John learned the trade from his father, Peter Bell, he advanced his knowledge by developing innovative recipes for different glazes and learning new techniques.

After apprenticing under his father in Hagerstown, where the concepts of the German eighteenth-century potter were instilled in him, he married in 1826 and relocated to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he worked until 1833. It was there, working with the potter, Jacob Heart, that he learned the English ceramic molding techniques that would later become so popular in all of the Bell family pottery wares.

John achieved great status and wealth during his lifetime, earning his bread and butter by producing a line of utilitarian pottery that was an essential part of everyday life. However, John was not intimidated by the stylish ceramic output of the large city potters or the stylish English and European imports.

Often intimidating the imported wares that were popular with the social elite of the period. John succeeded in inventing and producing glazes that stylistically emulated the popular Rockingham, mocha, Whieldon, spatterware and Bennington wares. In doing so, he was able to provide common households with a necessary ware that was luxurious in appearance but modest in price.

In the 1830's, he became the first American potter to make use of a tin glaze that produced a white surface, creating an appearance similar to stoneware (see article from March 18, 2016 for two rare examples)."

What struck me about the following red earthenware food mold (which I discovered yesterday) is the rare variegated green-glaze. I have seen this exact form stamped with John Bell's post-1850 mark ('JOHN BELL / WAYNESBORO'); however, I have never seen this form decorated with this type of glaze before. I usually see this form with simpler orange or yellow glazes - I have also seen this form with darker sponge or spattered decoration, but this type of variegated green-glaze is a first (for me). Presumably, this must be a rare color for this popular form.

This mold is not marked with Bell's stamp, but the form matches exactly to objects that were stamped by John Bell after 1850.

For comparison, I have shown below a few matching stamped red earthenware examples, which have sold through Crocker Farm in Sparks Maryland in the past twelve-years.

Essex, Mass. Discovery