EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Harvest Jug Recently Discovered in the Concord, New Hampshire-Area

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A Rare 19th Century Red Earthenware Harvest Jug Recently Discovered in the Concord, New Hampshire-Area

This is an unglazed nineteenth-century red earthenware harvest jug, which was recently discovered in the Concord, New Hampshire-area. This form would have been used to carry water to a field or some type of outdoor setting, which would have often entailed outdoor labor. But I do not think this type of object's use always involved labor. I have studied this jug for the past few days, and I feel it was made somewhere in central or northern New England, circa 1790-1860.

This is a rare form to find today from any New England red earthenware or stoneware potter; although, the most-prominent New England harvest jugs were likely made in southeastern Massachusetts, circa 1790-1830. These type of jugs were also usually glazed, but they were not all glazed (see below).

Three wonderful red earthenware southeastern Massachusetts harvest jugs sold when Falmouth, Massachusetts antique dealers, Hilary & Paulette Nolan sold their longtime red earthenware collection at Northeast Auctions in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2004. But there are a few other southeastern Massachusetts examples known to exist today that are privately owned, as-well-as a wonderful example owned by Winterthur in Delaware.

My observation: The footed base, the ovoid shape, the handle and the rim, which is seen where water would have been poured into this harvest jug remind me of regular red earthenware jugs that were made in Essex County, Massachusetts and various areas in New Hampshire in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. I can not prove it; although, these characteristics also remind me of features found on objects that were produced by the Osborn family in Essex County, and in Gonic, New Hampshire, Loudon, New Hampshire, Boscowan, New Hampshire, Dover, New Hampshire, etc. These features are why I believe this harvest jug was made in central or northern New England in the nineteenth-century.

Note: I have also included pictures of a rare unglazed nineteenth-century red earthenware harvest jug that is owned by Winterthur in Delaware, which is thought to have been made in Philadelphia, circa 1832. The jug is inscribed, 'Made by David Rittenhouse / June 4th 1832.'

Harvest Jug Found in the Concord, NH-Area