EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Rare Early-19th Century Southeastern Massachusetts Red Earthenware Jar Discovered Yesterday in New Hampshire

Monday, May 23, 2016

A Rare Early-19th Century Southeastern Massachusetts Red Earthenware Jar Discovered Yesterday in New Hampshire

Yesterday afternoon, I took a trip to a few shops that I occasionally visit - in hopes that I may find an example (or two) of eighteenth or nineteenth-century red earthenware. It is a specific route that I have successfully driven in the past that takes me from my house in Newburyport, Massachusetts to the lakes region in New Hampshire. It is about an hour-and-a-half drive each way.

For example, I discovered a wonderful nineteenth-century slip-decorated red earthenware creamer while driving this route last winter. The creamer was made at the Charles A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts, circa 1866-1906. I paid less than ten-dollars for the object - a similar example sold two-days ago in Lewis Scranton's collection that was sold by Skinner, Inc. in Killingworth, Connecticut.

It seems that luck may have been on my side yesterday, as well, as I found similar success when I discovered this very-rare small red earthenware jar - the jar was made in southeastern Massachusetts, circa 1790-1830. It stands less than six-inches tall. The small-size of this jar is part of what makes it so rare today. The jar is also decorated with two different glazes on two sides of the jar.

From my experience, I cannot recall seeing too many jars made in southeastern Massachusetts that were decorated with a different glaze style on each side of the jar. This seems to be a very-rare glaze pattern (to me).

I had a conversation with the dealer, who owned this jar while in the shop yesterday - and, he told me that he recently found it in a house in New Hampshire. However, that is all of the information that he could provide.