EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Locally Made Red Earthenware Chicken Waterer on Display at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts

Monday, October 9, 2017

A Locally Made Red Earthenware Chicken Waterer on Display at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts

There must be one-half dozen articles published on this website today written about nineteenth century red earthenware chicken feeders or waterers that I have discovered in various old contexts of ownership in Essex County, Massachusetts. Most of these objects have also been found near Peabody, Massachusetts, which is where I suspect they were made in the 1800s.

I also suspect that this was a form that was regularly included in production at one of the potter's businesses in Peabody, circa 1840-1900s, such as the Osborn Pottery, the Reed Pottery and the Paige Pottery.

However, I am now rather certain this was a style of production that took place in Peabody after I visited the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts with my niece on Saturday. I was really susprised when we visited the chicken exhibit at the fair, where we saw a stoneware chicken feeder or waterer reportedly made at the Dorchester Pottery Works in Dorchester, Massachusetts in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century, as well as a red earthenware chicken feeder or waterer in a matching form to the objects that I just described. I was also really surprised to hear that these objects were still used by a local farmer today.

Note: Without the contexts that these red earthenware feeders or waters are found - I would assume that this style of production would be attributed to another location today.

Chicken Feeder or Waterer