EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The John Paul Remensnyder Collection of Red Earthenware in the Collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian

Saturday, January 12, 2019

The John Paul Remensnyder Collection of Red Earthenware in the Collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian

Earlier this week, I posted a story that showed a colorfully glazed nineteenth century red earthenware bottle, attributed to New York, and owned by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. - but I could not provide any further information, supporting the attribution. However, I also intentionally left out the fact that the bottle was acquired by the museum from John John Paul Remensnyder (1898-1981), a twentieth century collector, whom I wrote about in 2018.

The Remensnyder (1898-1981) Collection at the National Museum of American History is an important collection of stoneware, which rivals any other museum collection of domestic stoneware. It is also a collection that may not be recognized today, as much as it should, when compared to the appreciation that it once received, especially when it was displayed at the Smithsonian in the 1970s.

Mr. Remensnyder was an important twentieth-century New York collector, who pursued the best in American stoneware during the same period when some of the early-to-mid-twentieth century books and magazine articles were published on domestic utilitarian pottery. He was also collecting at the same time as was Henry Francis Dupont at Winterthur, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), among many other notable collectors.

According to an obituary published in the New York Times in 1981, "Mr. Remensnyder was born in the Bronx, and he went to work at Heyden Chemical in 1920. He was named a director and vice president in 1944, president in 1950 and chairman of the board in 1952. But his avocation of collecting antique stoneware and metalware also brought him fame. His acquisitions have been shown and then donated to museums throughout the northeast.

Among the principal showings was his 150-piece stoneware collection at the Smithsonian Institution in 1978 and 1979, representing the product of a hobby that began more than a half century ago."

However, it is not largely known today that Mr. Remensnyder also owned a small collection of red earthenware. I have viewed all of these objects while studying in the museum's storage department. But the reason I have not previously written about any of the following objects is because I am not certain of their attribution. While they are interesting and said to have been made in New York when acquired by the museum, I fear that a number of these pieces may have actually been produced in Pennsylvania, but collected in New York.

For instance, I have posted a jug below that very much looks like Pennsylvania production, as well as a jar with two braided or twisted handles. These handles may have been mistaken for a similar type of handle manufactured at David Mandeville's circa 1810-1840 pottery in Circleville, New York, but the manufacture of this jar looks more in keeping with production from Pennsylvania, where this type of handle was also produced.

Although, I have indicated in the captions below, where I think these objects were more likely made in the nineteenth century.

Red Earthenware from the Collection of John Paul Remensnyder