EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: An 18th Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Mug Discovered Decades Ago in Eastern Massachusetts

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

An 18th Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Mug Discovered Decades Ago in Eastern Massachusetts

This is an eighteenth century slip-decorated barrel-formed red earthenware mug that I recently studied, which is owned privately today in Massachusetts; although, it was also reportedly discovered decades ago in eastern Massachusetts, as well.

Barrel-formed mugs were a popular form of production with eighteenth century potters in Massachusetts, especially those, who worked in Essex County, where the form was manufactured as early as the 1720s by Joseph Bayley (ca. 1701-1761) in Rowley, Massachusetts. These type of mugs were also produced at the Daniel Bayley (ca. 1729-1792) Pottery and probably the Ebenezer Morrison (ca. 1741-1803) Pottery in Newburyport, Massachusetts before the American Revolution, but the Bayleys and Morrison may have also made the form after 1775. Nonetheless, I also suspect this form was made elsewhere in Essex County in the 1700s, such as the potter's industry in Danvers and Peabody (formerly South Danvers), Massachusetts.

However, I have not seen this amount of slip-decoration combined with the use of manganese on this form of mug before. In this case, the mug appears to have been manufactured as a special object - the initials "MB" have been prominently placed on the front of the mug, where this is known as a monogram. The remaining slip combines the use of decorative motifs and dots, which seem to imitate some of the English pottery that was imported into the colonies during the period.

When I initially saw this mug, I wondered if it was made at the potter's industry in Charlestown, Massachusetts before the American Revolution. The style of slip seems to conform with some of the decorative styles that were applied at the colonial potteries in Charlestown.

But the color combination of the clear lead glaze, the slip and the manganese also compare to a red earthenware pan (see below), which was recovered by archaeologists during the archaeology of Boston's infamous Big Dig Project in the 1980s. The pan was found in an eighteenth century privy at the site of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown; whereas, the pan is also thought to have been made locally around the mid-eighteenth century or earlier.

Note: I have not been able to determine, who "MB" represents, but it is worth mentioning that there was a pottery, which operated in Charlestown before the American Revolution by Samuel Bodge and his son, Samuel Bodge, Jr. The name, Stephen Badger also appears in records as a potter employed in Charlestown before 1775. There were also a number of Bayley family members involved with that successful potter's business in Newburyport. However, I do want to reiterate the fact that the style of the colors found on this mug appear similar to how the colors were applied on the pan recovered in Charlestown.

18th Century Slip-Decorated Barrel-Formed Mug