19th Century Red Earthenware Sherds Recently Recovered in Alfred, ME

There were a small group of red earthenware potters, who operated in Alfred, Maine in the late-eighteenth and early-to-mid-nineteenth centuries; however, I feel this is a type of production that is not widely known today. I have seen examples of pottery attributed to Alfred, but I have always wondered how the attribution was developed since I can not find much accurate information about this area today.

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "Joshua Emery started the Alfred, Maine pottery in 1791. At some point before 1805 he moved to Windham, Maine, and later to Gorham, Maine, where he ran a gristmill. He was followed in 1805 by Daniel Holmes, whose pottery stood opposite of the Alfred meetinghouse. Either the shop itself or the business was reportedly moved north, and under the ownership of Porter Lambert, it was nearly opposite the courthouse. 

The Lambert shop was behind the buildings that composed the Berry Tavern. When the inn was being demolished in 1938, we visited the site finding numerous fragments, but none of any significance (these sherds are owned by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. today). This tavern was bought in 1832 by General Samuel Leighton, who, in his diary, facetiously refers to it as his 'pot stable.' Porter Lambert was working there as early as 1825.

Thus came a close to the Lambert Pottery. General Leighton makes a note that Porter Lambert died the morning of August 9, 1839. When Leighton bought the property, Lambert was in business with his son-in-law Albert Weber. The Executive Documents Relative to the Manufacturers in the United States record that they made annually earthenware of various kinds worth five-hundred dollars. They employed two men at seventy-five-cents a day and sold all their output in Maine. Albert Weber is remembered by persons now living (1930s). After the pottery in Alfred came to an end he opened a shop in North Yarmouth, Maine."

A friend, Matt Anson, who is a collector and researcher in southern Maine recently contacted me saying that he had recovered a group of red earthenware sherds in Aflred; whereas, he said, "These sherds were discovered in an old foundation hole from the nineteenth century. The site had been occupied from the early-1800s until about World War 1 by a family named Goodrich."

I was actually quite excited to see the glaze on some of these sherds since some are decorated with a grayish-colored glaze, which is a style that I have seen before from southern Maine. I also assume that these sherds are the remains of objects that were likely made in Alfred in the early-mid-nineteenth century.

But I also wonder how much is accurately known about the potter's businesses in southern Maine today since there appears to have been so much overlap with glaze colors. For example, here is a link to an article that I published online a few years ago, which shows somewhat of a similar grayish-colored glaze that was recovered less than twenty-miles away at the site of the Bickford Pottery in Buxton, Maine, circa 1825-1880.

Note: Here is a link to an article that I published online last year, where I wrote about a nineteenth century utilitarian pot that is owned today by Winterthur in Delaware, which is attributed to Alfred, Maine.

Sherds Recovered in Alfred, ME

19th Century Grayish-Colored Glazed Sherd Recovered in Alfred, ME

Circa Early-to-Mid-19th Century

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Matt Anson - Maine

19th Century Sherds Recovered in Alfred, ME

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Matt Anson - Maine

19th Century Sherds Recovered in Alfred, ME

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Matt Anson - Maine

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