EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: 19th Century Red Earthenware Sherds from a Chicken Water or Animal Feeder Recovered in Marblehead, Massachusetts

Monday, October 24, 2016

19th Century Red Earthenware Sherds from a Chicken Water or Animal Feeder Recovered in Marblehead, Massachusetts

I feel a nineteenth-century American-made red earthenware chicken waterer or animal feeder is a rare form to find today - it seems that this type of form is also more common in nineteenth-century American stoneware. Although, it was also a form popular with English country potters in the 1800's in places, such as Buckley, England.

Nevertheless, red earthenware sherds from this type of form were discovered in a nineteenth-century context on the property of a home that was built in the eighteenth-century in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The sherds were uncovered when the home was recently under restoration. They were discovered with a group of eighteenth and nineteenth-century ceramic artifacts that were likely originally used on the home's property. Those ceramic artifacts included locally produced red earthenware, Charlestown, Massachusetts stoneware and imported European ceramics, such as English slipware.

Interestingly, I have suggested in the past that this form was likely also made in Essex County, Massachusetts since I have previously discovered two intact chicken waters or animal feeders in Beverly, Massachusetts. Those examples also retained a history of ownership that dated back to the early-to-mid-twentieth-century, where they were found at separate estate sales in Beverly. The manufacture of each form also likely indicates multiple potters or multiple potter's businesses.

Presumably, this was a form that was probably made at some of the potteries located in Beverly and/or Peabody, Massachusetts during the circa 1840-1900 period.

Note: Keep in mind that this type of form would likely be attributed to another location today if it were not for the history that all of the following objects retain. I think this style of production is more-commonly associated with country potters in rural areas.

I also want to note that I have discovered additional animal feeder forms in homes in Beverly that were also likely made in Essex County, Massachusetts.

Sherd Found in Marblehead, Mass.