EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Beautifully Glazed Red Earthenware Vase Recently Discovered in a Shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

A Beautifully Glazed Red Earthenware Vase Recently Discovered in a Shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts

I recently found a beautifully glazed red earthenware vase sitting in a vintage shop on the waterfront in downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. On first sight, I thought this object may have been made at the Merrimac Pottery Company, circa 1897-1908. The vase was unmarked, although, I had thought that it may have been originally decorated with a paper label, which many of the Merrimac wares were marked with in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-centuries (note: the company also used an impressed sturgeon with the word 'MERRIMAC' to mark its products). Understandably, many of those paper labels fell off years ago leaving a number of objects unmarked today.

The vase that I found is also decorated in what I believe is a matte glaze, which is a rare style of glaze found on some Merrimac Pottery products, which survive today. However, the majority of the known matte glazed objects are decorated in a single color - and, the vase that I found is decorated in three (maybe four) different colors on the exterior and interior.

Truthfully, I was a little confused when I first inspected this vase as-a-result of the lighting in the shop, which was not well-lit - the dark lighting made the interior appear like it was not glazed. Accordingly, the vase also appeared like it was manufactured with a light colored clay, which is an uncommon feature for the Merrimac Pottery. But I could clearly see that my initial feeling was incorrect when I brought the vase out into the bright afternoon sunlight, and I discovered that the interior of the vase was actually covered in a pink or rose colored glaze.

For a comparison, I have shown below the vase that I discovered in Newburyport, and I have also shown two rose-colored vases as-well-as a group of matte glazed vases from the Merrimac Pottery.

Note: According to the webiste, 'Art Pottery,' "The Merrimac Ceramic Company was founded in 1897 by Thomas S. Nickerson. The pottery was located in Newburyport, Massachusetts. When it first started, Merrimac only made utilitarian pottery, such as cheap drainpipes, tiles and floral containers.

In 1902, the Merrimac Ceramic Company reorganized as the Merrimac Pottery Company, and at that time Nickerson decided to try and cash in on the Arts and Crafts Pottery movement. Nickerson had previously studied glazes and colors in London under Sir William Crookes, so he was well suited for the job.

In fact, it was Nickerson's experimentation with glazes that ended up producing some of the best Merrimac Pottery. He ended up producing color glazes in purple, blue, orange, yellow, black, red, rose, grape, violent, and of course, green.

Nickerson sold the Merrimac Pottery in 1908 - and, later that year a fire destroyed the building and a few months later the new owner, Frank Bray, had a liquidation sale. That marked the end of the Merrimac Pottery."

Vase Found in Newburyport, Mass.