EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Reassembled Black Glazed Red Earthenware Bowl Found in Southern New Hampshire

Monday, October 15, 2018

A Reassembled Black Glazed Red Earthenware Bowl Found in Southern New Hampshire

A few years ago, I reassembled the remains of a late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth century black glazed red earthenware bowl found in southern New Hampshire. It was presumed the bowl was also likely made in New Hampshire. I never really gave it much thought, thereafter. But it dawned on me yesterday that its production closely resembled a circa 1790-1820 handled red earthenware bowl from William Pecker's Pottery in Merrimacport, Massachusetts, which I included in a feature story I wrote for the October 2013 issue of the New England Antiques Journal, entitled, Buried in Merrimacport: William Pecker, his pots and his kiln.

Until yesterday, it was to my knowledge that the bowl published in the New England Antiques Journal was the only surviving form of its kind known from the Pecker Pottery. However, that may have all changed.

I compared these bowls yesterday, and aside from the handle, they certainly appear like they may have been manufactured by the same potter. The overall shape, the footed base, the flared rim, the refinement, the production of the interior and the size of each bowl appears to suggest that they may have been produced by the same potter; as a result, this black glazed bowl could potentially be a style of production that has not previously been attributed to William Pecker's business.

A Comparison of Red Earthenware Bowls