Charlestown was also a major industry that exported pottery throughout New England; East Greenwich was just a small potter's business that lasted for no more than twelve-years. We know that there were a number of kilns in Charelestown that made a ton of pottery. However, we do not know the size of the kiln that was built in East Greenwich, and we do not know how much pottery was actually produced. The only evidence that I can see from the Upton Pottery today is an advertisement.
Interestingly, I have seen more than ten examples of pottery attributed to the Upton brothers in the past five-years at nationally recognized auctions. I believe some of the objects are also attributed to a period of production in Rhode Island that did not exist. Currently, there are not even ten whole examples of Charlestown red earthenware known today outside of an archaeological context.
I really believe that the article, 'Early Rhode Island Pottery,' which was published in the January 1931 edition of 'The Magazine Antiques' has misled collectors and museums for more than eighty-five-years.
The article was written by noted Cape Cod, Massachusetts collector, Charles D. Cook, who owned a famous collection of red earthenware, which descended in his family until most of it was sold by Skinner in Boston in the early-2000's.
It appears that Cook was friends with Mrs. William Whitman, Jr., who lived in Simsbury, Connecticut. She also owned a collection of red earthenware and stoneware; unfortunately, she misinterpreted some of her collection.
Mrs. William Whitman, Jr. helped published in the 1920's that Jeremiah Burpee (1781-1862) produced a type of European stoneware in Boscowan, New Hampshire. This attribution was later corrected by Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins in 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares.' Watkins did not refer to Mrs. William Whitman, Jr. by name, but she did write that despite what had been previously published about the Burpee Pottery that the business only produced traditional country-style New England red earthenware. Watkins wrote that this business had been once associated with a type of European stoneware that was imported all over the American eastern seaboard in the 1800's. She said that this was incorrect information, where that pottery was shipped from England and continental Europe.
It seems that Mrs. William Whitman, Jr. and Charles D. Cook were also associated with two nationally recognized authors, John Spargo, who published, 'Early American Pottery and China' in 1926, and John Ramsay, who published, 'American Potters and Pottery' in 1939. Spargo and Ramsay illustrated some of Mrs. William Whitman, Jr.'s and Charles D. Cook's personal collection in their books; they attributed eighteenth-century black-glazed red earthenware from Buckley, England to Massachusetts, nineteenth-century brown-glazed stoneware from Europe to Jeremiah Burpee in Boscowan, New Hampshire and late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century red earthenware from southeastern Massachusetts to Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.
It is even more interesting to note that Lura Woodside Watkins avoided most of Charles D. Cook's writing from the 1930's when she published 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares' in 1950. She admitted that there were mistakes made in Cook's article, 'Early Rhode Island Pottery,' and she also disagreed with his attributions.
In fact, Watkins pretty much ignores the subject of Rhode Island red earthenware; although, she does cite the fact that the Upton brothers did established a pottery in East Greenwich around the American Revolution. However, she does not mention any sherds; nor did she write that any pottery from this business exists today. She called Rhode a meeting place, where a number of products were exported in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, but it was also a place, where very-little production actually happened.
I think Watkins would largely disagree today with the amount of pottery that is said to be attributed to the small amount of production that actually happened in Rhode Island before 1783.
I also want to write that I completely trust all of Watkins' research above all other writers (and collectors) from this generation. She did a remarkable job with 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares,' considering that she basically began from scratch. It would be extremely difficult today if this book had not been published. I think Watkins sums up her research when she wrote her preface, which partially reads, "This book is the result of more than fifteen years of research. The study has been carried on, partly in libraries and town records, partly by conferences with descendants of potters and others familiar with their history, and partly by actually digging on the sites of potteries. The excavation method has proved most successful in showing what our New England potters were making at an early period now almost unrepresented by surviving specimens."
An Important Jar from SE Mass.
Nevertheless, this is the cover photo to the October 1931 edition of 'The Magazine Antiques.' John Spargo wrote an article for this edition that discussed the general idea of early American red earthenware and stoneware. This is possibly how he was introduced to Charles D. Cook. He used some of Cook's collection in this article to demonstrate the types of wares that were made in New England; although some of the black-glazed wares are actually from England.
Illustrated on the cover is an incredible red earthenware jar and lid, which is attributed to southeastern Massachusetts in the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century. I do not know where this object resides today, but I would love to learn of its existence. The front of the jar is also decorated in slip with a person's initials. I would place this jar in the same category as were the marriage jars from southeastern Massachusetts, which I wrote about earlier this week.
Note: Here are links to the previous articles that I wrote earlier this week, which debate the subject of "Early Rhode Island Pottery."
1) 'Early Rhode Island Pottery' Article from the January 1931 Edition of 'The Magazine Antiques'
2) The Rhode Island Attribution that is Used Today
3) Joseph Wilson, a Colonial Massachusetts and Rhode Island Potter
Here is also a link to the article, which discussed three important red earthenware marriage jars that were made in southeastern Massachusetts in the early-nineteenth-century.
'The Magazine Antiques,' October 1931
October 1931 Edition of 'The Magazine Antiques
Cover Object Made in Southeastern Massachusetts
The Incredible Lid is Original
Circa Early-19th Century
This Jar is Also Decorated in Slip with a Person's Initials
Charles D. Cook Collection - Cape Cod, Mass.
Photo Courtesy: The Magazine Antiques, October 1931
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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