EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Two Potential Examples of 19th Century Red Earthenware Produced in Galena, Illinois

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Two Potential Examples of 19th Century Red Earthenware Produced in Galena, Illinois

Update: There has been much debate over this jug whether it was made in Illinois versus New England. I will continue to research this form and report back at a later time. I will also continue to research the jar.

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Facebook can be a wonderful resource for help with properly identifying antiques; although, I mostly use it for red earthenware. Earlier today, I posted pictures of this jug that I recently acquired from a private collection in New Hampshire, where this object also retained a history of ownership in northern New England. It was presumed that this jug was manufactured in Maine - and, I thought that it could have been made in southern Maine based on some of the key characteristics that it exhibits.

However, it was quickly brought to my attention through Facebook by Milwaukee, Wisconsin collector, Jim Bagley that the form and glaze found on this jug is a known style that is properly attributed to Galena, Illinois today. I was actually excited to learn this information since this jug fills an important area in my collection that had not really been represented. But I am also not that surprised to find this jug in northern New England since I have just recently discovered examples of nineteenth century Georgia and Alabama (or Edgefield, South Carolina) stoneware in various parts of Maine. This type of domestic utilitarian pottery has traveled since it was created - it traveled when it was used in the 1800s, but it has also traveled in the past 50 to 100 years as part of the antique industry. It is often difficult to explain why certain objects are found where they are discovered today without a strong context of family ownership.

Interestingly, I have also shown pictures of a similar glazed red earthenware jar that I bought when I first began regularly collecting redware about 15 years ago. I bought the jar from a single owner collection of folk art that had sold at Skinner in Boston.

The jar is marked with a stamped "1/4" mark. It appears that the mark was applied with individual stamps.

Skinner did not provide an attribution for this jar, but I now suspect that it could be a Midwestern-made object. The collection of folk art included a few dozen pieces of nineteenth century American red earthenware, which spanned makers from Maine, to Virginia, Ohio and a number of places in between. I should also mention that I have seen a few matching formed jars attributed to Maine before, but I have never been convinced of that attribution.

Note: Here is a link to an article that I posted at the beginning of May that further discusses pottery produced in Galena, Illinois. Although, I also mentioned a slip-decorated milk pan that was found on a shipwreck that was discovered on the shore of the Ohio River in Illinois. This article also shows three jugs from Galena, which reveal a similar double-lip as seen on the jug that is shown below.

Red Earthenware Jar