EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Study About the Relatively Forgotten Potter's Industry in North Yarmouth, Maine: Report Number 2

Sunday, October 2, 2016

The Study About the Relatively Forgotten Potter's Industry in North Yarmouth, Maine: Report Number 2

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "A redware shop was built in North Yarmouth, Maine about 1840 by Nathaniel Foster - Foster is known to have been in the earthenware business as early as 1831. He may have come from Exeter, New Hampshire (where he may have also trained), as he married Rebecca Swasey of that town. His sons, Benjamin and William, were his assistants. After his death in 1854 they ran the pottery (until 1878)."

From notes obtained by Miss Maragaret Jewell (in the early-20th century) from Benjamin Foster when he was an old man, we learn that the Fosters sold (some of) their wares by boat, taking a load "down east" every spring. Thus they disposed of North Yarmouth (today known as Yarmouth) pottery in Freeport, Brunswick, Windham, Gray and other places."

The following black-glazed pitcher was purchased a few years ago from a shop in Ogunquit, Maine; however, I asked the shop owner if they would call the dealer in order to ask where the pitcher was found. The dealer said it recently came out of a house in Pittsfield, Maine, which is northwest of some of the communities, where the Fosters would have shipped some of their red earthenware in the nineteenth-century.

Nevertheless, this is also likely another example of an object that was made in Maine with an intentionally glazed base. It has been said in the past (and published) that the Maine potter's industry never produced pottery in such a manner outside of flower pots in the late-nineteenth-century. But I have recently learned that this idea is false.

I think the biggest characteristic that likely ties this object to the Foster Pottery is a result of how the handle was constructed at the bottom terminal. In this case, the handle and finger impression match an unusual handle style that was produced at the Foster Pottery in North Yarmouth, which is also found on a jug (see below) and sherds that are owned by the Yarmouth Historical Society. This also appears like it could be a unique style of handle for nineteenth-century American and Canadian potters.

As I have already indicated, the pitcher's base is also glazed, which is a characteristic found on some of the wares made at the Foster Pottery (see jug below). Although, this pitcher was removed from the potter's wheel with a wire, and the jug was not removed from the potter's wheel with a wire - and, as a result, these objects may represent two different potters, who worked at the Foster Pottery in the 1800's.

The form of the lid is also a known Maine style. This lid basically matches a lid found on a Maine-made red earthenware pot that I recently purchased from Limington, Maine antiques dealer, Bill Kelly in Brimfield, Massachusetts. Bill told me that the pot he discovered was just removed from a house in Otisfield, Maine (here is a link to the story that I wrote, which discusses that object).

Note: All of this research is for an article that I plan to write for publication in 2017; however, I will continue to share information about this relatively forgotten potter's industry today.