EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Early-19th Century Philadelphia Red Earthenware Recovered at the African-American Meeting House in Boston

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Early-19th Century Philadelphia Red Earthenware Recovered at the African-American Meeting House in Boston

According to the Museum of African-American History, "The African-American Meeting House on Beacon Hill in Boston was built in 1806 in what once was the heart of Boston's nineteenth century free black community. The Meeting House was host to giants in the Abolitionist Movement who were responsible for monumental historical events that changed this nation."

Last week, I posted three articles that showed the remains of red earthenware from Essex County, Massachusetts and southeastern Massachusetts, which appear to have been used at the African-American Meeting House in Boston in the early-to-mid 1800s.

The objects were uncovered within such an archaeological context, which would suggest that these objects were once utilized around the period when the meeting house was used to "found the New England Anti-Slavery Society with William Lloyd Garrison in 1832, and the 1833 farewell address of Maria Stewart, a black woman and the first American born woman to speak publicly before a gender mixed audience."

Then-and-Now -- Boston's African-American Meeting House

African-American Meeting House, Boston

Photo Circa 1890
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Photo Courtesy: The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

African-American Meeting House, Boston

Built Circa 1806

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Photo Courtesy: Museum of African-American History

Today, I would like to show a small group of red earthenware sherds that were uncovered in a similar archaeological context at the African-American Meeting House, where they appear to have been imported from Philadelphia. These objects were also likely originally acquired from a merchant in Boston after they had likely arrived by ship at a dock at Faneuil Hall.

The red earthenware made in Philadelphia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was certainly manufactured for the local market, but it was exported, as well. Archaeological evidence has been found in places, such as North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, New York City, Albany, New York, Boston and possibly even Maine.

For a comparison to the sherds recovered at this site: I have included pictures of three pieces of red earthenware from my private collection that I believe were made in Philadelphia or the surrounding area in the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth century.

Red Earthenware Sherd with Incised Decoration

This first red earthenware sherd appears to be the remains of a slip-decorated bowl, dish or pan; it is decorated on the exterior with manganese that seems to have been applied with a sponge or a related tool, as well as a band of incised lines, which were probably placed around the midsection of the object.

The glaze found on the interior of this sherd closely resembles the glaze found on the interior of a red earthenware bowl that I own, which I have always suspected was made in Philadelphia (although, if not Philadelphia then southeastern Pennsylvania, but I have always felt the bowl was made in Philadelphia).

This bowl is similar in shape and somewhat glaze to a form that I have shown below in the group photo to the bottom right, where a number of these type of forms have been recovered in Philadelphia within circa 1770-1815 archaeological contexts.

Group of Red Earthenware Likely from Philadelphia
Circa Late-18th/Early-19th Century

(Bottom Left) Early-19th Century Red Earthenware Bowl Likely from Philly, Otherwise SE Penn.

Interior Glaze on this Bowl Appears to Match the Interior Glaze on the Sherd Below

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(Bottom Right) Late-18th or Early-19th Century Red Earthenware Bowl Attributed to Philadelphia
These Type of Bowls Have Been Recovered in Philadelphia, Circa 1770-1815
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