The Continued Study Into the Dodge Pottery in Portland, Maine

The Dodge Pottery in Portland, Maine is a late-eighteenth and nineteenth-century red earthenware potter's business, which very little is known about today. The background for this business came from Exeter, New Hampshire - and, as a result, the types of wares made in Exeter may provide a clue into how some of the wares appeared in Portland. But there must have also been a significant output since this company operated from the 1790's until the 1870's.

The Dodge Pottery was also not a country potter's business in Maine, where production was only a part-time operation. Instead, this was a full-time urban potter's business in an active maritime community with plenty of opportunity to sell red earthenware in a retail and wholesale environment.

It probably does not help, either that some of this business' known output has been mistaken for decades for products made at the Thomas Truxton Kendrick (1827-177) Pottery in Hollis, Maine. Even the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine improperly attributes Dodge Pottery products to the Kendrick Pottery today. I do not know how the Kendrick attribution was developed, but it must have begun in the 1960's or 1970's.

Ultimately, I really want to unravel this mystery to determine what exactly was made at the Dodge Pottery, which was a multi-generational potter's business established by Benjamin Dodge, Sr. (1774-1838), and later managed by his son, Benjamin Dodge, Jr. (1802-1876). My feeling is that some of the unknown Dodge Pottery that exists may be generically attributed to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Massachusetts today.

I also truly hope that all archaeological evidence from this business was not lost in the 1970's when the State of Maine constructed Interstate 295 through the city. The construction forced the nineteenth and twentieth-century Portland Stoneware Company to relocate, and the Dodge Pottery was originally located near this business. It would be tragic if all the archaeological evidence was lost forever; although, I still feel that there must be some proof out there today that has been overlooked.

Nevertheless, these are the facts: It is known today that the Dodges produced a variety of skillfully made lidded jars, which are often referred to as spice jars. However, many of these jars were actually storage jars that were produced in various sizes.

The Dodges also applied some slip-decoration at their business, which is extremely rare for the nineteenth-century potter's industry in Maine. This fact may indicate that the Dodges were somehow involved with the potter's industry located a few miles north in North Yarmouth, Maine, where slip-decoration was sometimes applied on jars in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries.

It is also known today that the Dodges developed a bright green-glaze that was applied on flower pots, which also proves that they used green-glazes. Coincidentally, sherds from two green-glazed flower pots were recovered in a nineteenth-century context in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Fundamentally, the Dodge's skill also leads me to believe that they had to have produced all the essential utilitarian red earthenware forms, such as pans, crocks, jars, jugs, cups, mugs, flower pots, etc.

I also own an accomplished red earthenware foot warmer with a strong southern Maine history, where the potter seems to have copied a matching stoneware form that was made at the J.T. Winslow Pottery in Portland in the mid-nineteenth-century. It only makes sense to say that this object was likely made at the Dodge Pottery in the 1850's, where Benjamin Dodge, Jr. likely got a hold of one of J.T. Winslow's foot warmers, and he decided to copy it. It is definitely a rare red earthenware form to find today.

Flower Pot Sherds from Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH

 Wonderful Green Glazed Red Earthenware Flower Pot

Excavated in Portsmouth, NH Near Puddle Dock

Possibly Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portland, ME
Possibly Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portsmouth, NH

Photo Courtesy: Strawbery Banke Archaeology Dept. - Portsmouth, NH

Wonderful Green Glazed Red Earthenware Flower Pot Shersd

Excavated in Portsmouth, NH Near Puddle Dock

Possibly Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portland, ME
Possibly Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portsmouth, NH

Photo Courtesy: Strawbery Banke Archaeology Dept. - Portsmouth, NH

Note: It was a similar scenario in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Benjamin Dodge, Sr.'s brother, Joseph Dodge (1776-1849) purchased a pottery in Portsmouth in the late-eighteenth-century. He operated a successful potter's business, which his son, Jabez Dodge (b. 1804) eventually owned in the nineteenth-century. There is not a lot known about this potter's business today, either; however, the output at this business has been preserved by Strawbery Banke's Archaeology Department, which shows this was a full-time potter's business with a significant output for more than eighty-years.

In theory, I have also considered the idea that the Dodge potteries in Portsmouth and Portland may have worked together with production and sales.

Here is a link to an article that I wrote earlier this year about the relatively forgotten Dodge Pottery in Portsmouth.

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This is a creamer or small pitcher that is owned by the Maine Historical Society in Portland. The museum suggests that this could be an object made at the Dodge Pottery, but they are not certain of their attribution.

19th Century Red Earthenware Creamer or Small Pitcher

Possibly Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portland, ME

Stands Approximately 4" to 5" Tall

Circa 1820-1860

Photo Courtesy: Maine Historical Society - Portland, ME

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...