EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The 19th Century Bradley Family Red Earthenware Pottery in West Woodstock, Vermont

Sunday, January 7, 2018

The 19th Century Bradley Family Red Earthenware Pottery in West Woodstock, Vermont

Last week, I posted an article about the archaeology of Moses Bradley's circa 1790-1797 red earthenware pottery in Chimney Point, Vermont. I wrote, "It was reported that Bradly likely made the typical forms, such as mugs, creams pots, jugs, pitchers, milk pans, vases and other objects. This production is likely based on what is known about Bradley's later production after 1797."

According to a book written by Henry Swan Dana in 1889, 'The History of Woodstock, Vermont,' "Moses Bradley, the father of John W. Bradley, came from Haverhill, Massachusetts. He married Deborah West, at Concord, New Hampshire and went to live in Addison, Vermont in 1790, settling on a spot known from that day to this as Chimney Point. He worked at the brown earthenware business while in Addison, and lived there rather more than seven years.

From Addison Mr. Bradley moved to Windsor, Vermont, and stayed in that town two-or-three years, then came to Woodstock, Vermont with his family and settled on Bradley Flat, as the spot was called at the time from this fact, but in later times called West Woodstock.

Mr. Bradley established himself in business on this spot the 1st day of June, 1800, taking possession of the house previously owned and occupied by Colonel Joseph Safford.

A man named Edson has engaged in the pottery business here for some years before this, but he was now gone, leaving the field free to Mr. Bradley. On the site of the house recently occupied by Aaron Whitney, Mr. Bradley set up his shop, and began forthwith the manufacture of cream-pots, jugs, pitchers, milk pans, etc., and not only was his establishment famous among the housekeepers of this vicinity and abroad, but it was a special centre of attraction to the crowds of children in their leisure moments, who attended the public school in the Flats in those days.

One of these children has described what he saw there in the following language: "I have stood silently by him a great many hours and watched him, while from a lump of clay put upon his wheel he would draw up a structure which would turn out to be a vase, a pitcher or a jug. If a vase, the walls were carried up perpendicularly; if a pitcher, when the sides were carried up, he would on some place put his thumb on the outside and his finger on the inside and bend down the slope, which would be the pitcher's nose; and if a jug, he would put both hands across the upper part of the vessel and contract it, and around the forefinger of his left hand he would bring up the top of the vessel to form the nose of the jug. I admired to watch this handicraft, but the converting of dull colored bars of lead into a brilliant red powder and then a red glazing - a liquid with which the outsides of the pottery were washed - was a mystery, which, in my ignorance of chemistry, seemed to savor of witchcraft and necromancy."

Mr. Bradly pursued for some years a thriving business at the earthenware trade, but finally gave up the entire concern to his son, John W., who took charge of the pottery-works September 20, 1824,- continuing the business, however, only a short time; and with him was the end, it may be said, of this branch of industry in West Woodstock."

This bit of history that Henry Swan Dana wrote about in 1889 is further proof of the small family oriented red earthenware potteries, which operated in Vermont during the circa 1790-1830 period. But many of these companies are hardly recognized today. The way the child described the production of the jug leads me to believe that the form is similar to jugs that were produced in Essex County, Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire; whereas, that would certainly make sense considering Moses Bradley originated from this area.

The child's description of the pitcher also leads me to believe that the form is similar to other forms manufactured in Essex County, southern New Hampshire and Maine.

However, the vase is intriguing since a number of somewhat straight-sided vases are attributed to Maine today without an exact attribution. But ovoid vases with long necks (or noses) were also popular with Vermont potters, and some of the vases that exist today from Vermont may have been created in West Woodstock before 1830. But I also question what the child meant by the word "vase;" Was he referencing what we view as a traditional vase today or is it possible that he referenced what is commonly called a straight sided jar today?

Note: I have posted images of a jug and a straight-sided jar, which both retain histories of ownership in Vermont. I believe both of these objects were made in Vermont and they seem to represent the type of forms that the school boy describes in the passage, which author, Henry Swan Dana documented in 1889.

Red Earthenware Jug