EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A 17th or 18th Century Earthenware Jar that was Discovered in an Old Barn in Upstate New York

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

A 17th or 18th Century Earthenware Jar that was Discovered in an Old Barn in Upstate New York

On May 13, 2014, I discovered a large heavy earthenware jar in Brimfield, Massachusetts, which was said to have been recently discovered in a nineteenth-century barn in upstate New York. Since then, the jar has sat in my house without any identification; however, I recently learned that this jar was likely made in southern France.

This object is probably related to a similar style of jar that is often today called a 'Biot Jarre' or 'Jarre de Biot,' as-a-result of the production of such a form in Biot, France. Biot is a small village that has been known for its production of pottery dating back to as-early-as the Roman Period. The jar that I bought was likely made as-early-as the late-seventeenth century.

I would also assume that this jar is likely tied to the French emigrants, who settled in North America in the eighteenth-century. The contents that this jar originally held may have been something that was exported to America or Canada.

This type of jar served a similar purpose as did the Spanish Iberian storage jars from the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries (which I have recently written about), where both type of jars would have likely been used for food storage and transportation.

Although, the French jars were reportedly first used for the transportation of flour, but they were also eventually used for the transportation of olives, which happened with the expansion of olive oil production in the 1700s.

There are also similar formed jars from southern France that survive today that were marked with a trade seal, which was likely used to identify what the jar (originally) held.

According to Biot's Office of Travel and Tourism, "These jars were an important production in Biot from the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. The jars were entirely hand-made according to a demanding process that required several years of apprenticeship.

The potter, who specialized in making these jars had only two little spatulas, a flat one named in local dialect "esteco" and a curved one named "escaire." The inside part of the jars were also glazed.

Once the jars were shaped and glazed, the jars were then put in a kiln on clay supports, where the larger jars were placed at the bottom and the smallest ones on top. The kiln was then closed. The cooking lasted for three days during which the temperature was gradually risen to 800-880 degrees Celsius.

Those jars made on a large scale were exported throughout France, to cities like Antibes, Marseille, Genoa, and all throughout the Mediterranean. Some were even exported to the Americas and India."

Note: The larger jars were often re-purposed in Europe in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-centuries when the form became popular in gardens. Accordingly, this is also the period when many traditional utilitarian potter's began to focus on the production of garden wares in America.

Jar Found in Upstate New York

17th/18th Century Earthenware Jar Likely Made in Southern France
May Have Been Made in Biot, France
Proper Terminology May Suggest this Jar is Called a 'Biot Jarre' or 'Jarre de Biot'

Reportedly Found in a Barn in Upstate New York in 2014
Circa 1680-1780

Weighs 32 Pounds

Stands 20" Tall
Photo Was Taken in 2014 When My Nephew, Jason was 10 Years Old