EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Two Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Objects that are Owned by Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Two Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Objects that are Owned by Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Pictured below are two unusual formed objects that I recently saw in storage at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. These are not the typical formed bowls that were generally produced by American red earthenware potters in the 1800's. Although, it is also interesting to know that these bowls retain a history of ownership in New England before they were acquired by the museum in the 1970's.

The first bowl (or basin) appears like it was produced to have been used as a wash basin, where the smaller bowl (which is attached to the rim) may have held soap. The form seems like it could have been produced by a potter, who also produced shaving cups (or mugs) in the 1800's.

The idea behind this basin's form also slightly reminds me of some rare polychrome red earthenware wash basins that were produced in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in the nineteenth-century. For reference, there are examples of Virginia-made wash basin's documented in some of the books, which have been published on Shenandoah Valley pottery throughout the twentieth-century.

The second bowl was likely intended to have been used as a mixing bowl, where the potter creatively added a pouring spout below the rim. I can not recall having ever seen a similar form in a museum collection or a private collection. But the combination of the form (minus the pouring spout) and the glaze could suggest that this object was made somewhere in northern New England (i.e. New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine), circa 1820-1880.

Red Earthenware Wash Basin