EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Wall Pocket Discovered Yesterday in Rowley, Massachusetts

Monday, May 2, 2016

A Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Wall Pocket Discovered Yesterday in Rowley, Massachusetts

I discovered the following nineteenth-century red earthenware wall pocket yesterday at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Massachusetts for $3. The dealer told me that it was recently found in a house in New Hampshire. The base of the wall pocket is flanked with what I would describe as an acorn finial.

Overall, the American-made red earthenware wall pocket is a rare form to find today - it was designed with the intent to hold flowers while it hung from an exterior or an interior wall. The form gained popularity in Europe in the late-eighteenth-century. But, its popularity did not spread to America until after the American Civil War - and, its popularity continued with American homeowners unit the 1950's. However, most of the wall pockets that were designed in the twentieth-century were molded products made by industrial-type companies.

The nineteenth-century handmade American wall pocket was likely most-popular with the red earthenware potters, who were employed in the Mid-Atlantic region; although, it is debatable that the majority of the nineteenth-century red earthenware production happened within Virginia and Pennsylvania after 1870.

Nevertheless, the handmade wall pocket that I discovered yesterday at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley is possibly a very-rare object made in New England.

To my knowledge, institutions such as Historic New England and Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts do not own a related form from New England despite owning large red earthenware collections. However, it is difficult to say specifically where this object may have been made since there are no other New England-made forms known (to me), and there is also no archaeological evidence (that I am aware of today).

It could be argued that this wall pocket was made in Massachusetts, New Hampshire or possibly even Maine during the circa 1870-1900 period. It would have likely been made in an area, where potters focused on the production of floral products after 1870.

For example: I have seen similar bright orange glazes attributed to the Lamson Pottery in Exeter, New Hampshire after 1840; although, I have also seen similar bright orange glazes attributed to the Moses Paige Pottery in Peabody, Massachusetts after 1880. Both the Lamson and Paige Potteries also focused on the production of floral products in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-centuries.

Note: The back of this handmade red earthenware wall pocket is glazed, which is similar to wall pockets that were made in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in the late-1800's.