Yesterday, I posted a story that recounted the career path of Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831), who was born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 21, 1752, moved to North Carolina in the 1760s, and later found business, political and religious success in Maryland and Western New York in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among those successes was offering some of his property for rent in 1818, to be used as a pottery; he was not the potter himself, but the business is known by his name today.
In fact, to my knowledge, the potter or potters who were employed on Rochester's land during the circa 1818-1831 period have not been identified; although, it is known that the kiln on Rochester's property was a simple updraft kiln of the beehive or bottle shape, with two fire boxes, and constructed from local red earthenware brick (Hammel, Northeast Historical Archaeology, Volume 9, 1980). The site of the pottery was also excavated by archaeologists in the 1970s from the Rochester and Science Museum Center, discovering a wide variety of production, including marbleized slip-decorated plates, although none of which are known to have survived today.
As I noted yesterday, the most desired forms from the Rochester Pottery can be found in a variety of colors, most of which are decorated in some style of slip, even though I happen to own an extremely rare example in a beautiful green glaze. Other forms I have seen from the Rochester Pottery include a variety of jars and pitchers, as well as porringers, shaving mugs, bottles, etc.
A few summers ago, while traveling west through upstate New York, en route to Niagara Falls in Western New York with my nephew, Jason, we visited Victor, New York antiques dealer, Gene Pratt, who happens to own one of the premier collections of nineteenth century Western New York red earthenware in the country. It was a wonderful learning experience, seeing this collection, but also photographing it for my studies. Inspecting this collection in-hand really provided me with a better understanding of the wares made in this region, which are sometimes interpreted by only the glazes. But it's much more than just that single characteristic because many of the colorful glazes produced in Western New York can also be found with pottery made in Ontario and New England.
As part of Gene's collection are some incredible examples of slip-decorated wares from the Rochester Pottery, much of which exemplify the best styles of slip. For instance, Gene acquired this dramatic slip-decorated jar only a few months before we visited, and from what I have seen from wares made in Rochester in private collections, as well as museum collections, I view the slip on this jar to be one of the best examples of Rochester Pottery in existence today. This is much more than just an utilitarian pot; the slip, which does resemble styles found in France and elsewhere in America, has transformed this object into a work of art.
Over the next month, I plan to highlight some of the best objects owned by the Pratts, which is really generous since this is a private collection, much of which was assembled years ago. This also happens to be a region that is not widely publicized or published today, and seeing some of these objects may help provide a better understanding of the forms and glazes that are actually from Western New York. Aside from these objects, the Pratts also happen to own some great examples of archaeology from this region, that aside from the forms, reveal a great deal of overlap in glazes from one potter's business to the next, thus verifying why forms (before anything else) are so important today.
Dramatic Slip-Decorated Jar from the Rochester Pottery in Western New York
Spectacular 19th Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Jar
Attributed to the Nathaniel Rochester Pottery in Rochester, NY
Circa 1818-1831
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Photo Courtesy: Gene Pratt
Another View of the Jar
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Photo Courtesy: Gene Pratt
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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