EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Study About the Relatively Forgotten Potter's Industry in North Yarmouth, Maine: Report Number 6

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Study About the Relatively Forgotten Potter's Industry in North Yarmouth, Maine: Report Number 6

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "Potteries in North Yarmouth (today known as Yarmouth), Maine were established in the eighteenth-century. The first was built at Yarmouth Corner (see yesterday's story) in 1791 by John Thomas (1754-1843), a native of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Thomas built his pottery on the west side of Main Street (West Main Street).

Thomas worked in Yarmouth throughout his lifetime, and after his death, his business was run by his children, Samuel Thomas and William Thomas (they also likely previously worked for their father).

The business was then sold around 1850 to Joel Brooks, a potter, who eventually tore down the old building and rebuilt the business."

To my knowledge: the Thomas Pottery is a business that is not known today despite having produced red earthenware for more than fifty-years. Undoubtedly, pottery from this business survives today, and some of it may appear to possess an Essex County, Massachusetts influence, as that is where I suspect Thomas had trained prior to his arrival in Maine.

Interestingly, Thomas also trained Ebenezer Corliss (1764-1853), who was the uncle of John Corliss (1792-1892), a well-known potter in the Day's Ferry neighborhood in Woolwich, Maine. From what is known today, it seems that some of John Corliss' forms may slightly resemble products, which were manufactured in North Yarmouth in the early-nineteenth-century.

According to Lura Woodside Watkins, "A pottery at Yarmouth Corner was operated by Ebenezer Corliss, who had been trained in the Thomas shop. He built his works in 1806 and ran it with George Bruce until 1850. It then passed into the hands of David Cleaves(1794-1860) and his son, Robert Cleaves (died 1885). David had come from Saco, Maine, and was Corliss' son-in-law, having married Lydia Corliss in 1818. His pottery was the largest in town until it closed around 1885.

Also according to Watkins, "At the age of three, John Corliss was taken from his birthplace in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, to North Yarmouth when his family moved there in the winter of 1802. Growing up among the potteries in the town, he developed an aptitude for the craft and was no doubt apprenticed to his uncle, Ebenezer Corliss. When he was twenty-one and old enough to start his own business, he went to Day's Ferry in West Woolwich. This proved to be an excellent location, because there was a suitable bed of clay near at hand and a good market for his wares on both sides of the river."

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be much red earthenware properly attributed to Ebenezer Corliss today, either. But there should be no doubt that his production also survives since he was in business for almost forty-five years. I also want to mention that John Corliss was not the only potter to learn the potter's craft in North Yarmouth - there were definitely other Maine potters, who also learned how to run a potter's business here, as well.

A few years ago, I purchased a small red earthenware stew pot at a Michael March auction in Essex, Massachusetts. Michael March told me that the pot was consigned from an early home in Rockport, Massachusetts; although, the consensus among the people, who I have shown this object say it appears like an early Maine-made product.

This pot also appears like a late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century object, which may have been influenced by a known form that was produced in Essex County, Massachusetts in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth-centuries.

The handle on this pot is also similar to the jug that I showed a few days ago that was made at the Foster Pottery in North Yarmouth, circa 1840-1887. As a result, I believe this stew pot was likely/possibly made at either the John Thomas Pottery or the Ebenezer Corliss Pottery in North Yarmouth.

There is also a known group of Maine jugs that survive today that were manufactured with this same handle - and, most recently, one of these known jugs was sold last year by Tim Gould in Augusta, Maine, where it was attributed to the Ebenezer Corliss Pottery.

Late-18th or Early-19th Century Red Earthenware Stew Pot Possibly Made in North Yarmouth, ME
Possibly Made at the Thomas Pottery or the Corliss Pottery

Recently Found in an Early Home in Rockport, Mass.

Circa 1790-1820

Stands 5 3/4" Tall

View of the Handle

Handle is Similar to a Style that was Produced at the Foster Pottery in North Yarmouth, ME

A Group of Maine-Made Jugs are also Known Today with This Same Handle

I Believe All of These Jugs were Made in North Yarmouth, ME Before 1850

Nevertheless, the Yarmouth Historical Society owns a wonderful group of objects in its storage department that were made at the Thomas Pottery, which include a skillfully-made important red earthenware bowl that was signed by John Thomas in 1836. The bowl is inscribed on the base, "North Yarmouth / October 15, 1836 / John Thomas / Aged 82."

Incredibly, none of these objects have been discussed, written about or published in the past despite the fact that the museum has owned them since 1959. This is not the only example of signed North Yarmouth, Maine pottery that is known. But this is also an important industry (and location) in Maine that has been mostly overlooked today.

I have no doubt that all of the North Yarmouth potteries made all the traditional forms of red earthenware during the lifespan of the local industry, circa 1791-1890. The forms likely included bowls, cups, dishes, flower pots, jars, jugs, mugs, pots, pans, vases, and possibly even plates. Slip-decoration was also used in North Yarmouth, which went along with a variety of glaze colors that were created by the local potters.

Note: A prominent Maine collector once said to me, "There may have been one-hundred red earthenware potters in Maine in the nineteenth-century; however, maybe only twenty are entirely understood today. And it seems that all the Maine pottery, which exists today is forced into those twenty businesses - rather, than realizing that there were more potters, who produced similar forms and glazes in the 1800's."

Bowl Signed by John Thomas - North Yarmouth, ME