EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Forms Owned by Winterthur in Wilmington, Delaware

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Forms Owned by Winterthur in Wilmington, Delaware

The American, Canadian and English red earthenware collection owned by Winterthur in Wilmington, Delaware is remarkable - it is easily among the best red earthenware collections in the country. Essentially, the diversity of this collection is what makes it so special today. Important objects are represented from potters in Ontario, Nova Scotia, western New York, Maine, Massachusetts, New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and among other states, as well.

An aspect of the collection that I truly enjoy are the rare forms that seem to have been more-so regularly manufactured in Pennsylvania than anywhere else in America in the nineteenth-century. The Pennsylvania potters were arguably the most-experimental when it came to introducing unusual forms to the American potter's industry - and, many of these types of forms are represented in Winterthur's collection. Although, this statement should not be misunderstood - unusual forms were made by red earthenware potters all over America in the nineteenth-century; however, it appears that the Pennsylvania potters gave a greater effort to produce forms that did not necessarily fit into the norm of the day-to-day products made by a tradition American red earthenware potter.

The museum's notable rare red earthenware forms include inkstands, inkwells, candlesticks, vases, roasting pans, wall pockets, trivets, strainers, pipes, sanders, salts, sugar bowls, various formed flower containers, butter molds, whimsical figures, decorative objects, roof tiles, castors, various cooking molds, gemels, pipe racks and plaques. Many of these objects were made in Pennsylvania, too.

Today, I have chosen six objects from Winterthur's collection that I feel represents the idea of what a rare red earthenware form exemplifies today. I believe all of these objects are also attributed to Pennsylvania. The rarest among the group is likely the red earthenware tobacco shredder, which is a form that I have never seen made from red earthenware or stoneware before.

Note: Nineteenth-century tobacco shredders are often made from cast iron - in-fact, a number of the tobacco shredders that appeared in America in the 1800's were cast iron products, which were manufactured in Germany. It should be understandable, too that this red earthenware tobacco shredder was likely manufactured by a Pennsylvania-German potter in the nineteenth-century.

Lamp