EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: 19th Century Hand-Painted Easter Egg Manufactured in North Cambridge, Massachusetts

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

19th Century Hand-Painted Easter Egg Manufactured in North Cambridge, Massachusetts

Late-nineteenth and twentieth century paper mache Easter eggs are relatively well-known today, many of which were manufactured in Germany and given to children on Easter filled with candy. According to Time Magazine, "The Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called "Osterhase" or "Oschter Haws." Children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs. Eventually, the custom spread across the United States and the fabled rabbit's Easter morning deliveries expanded to include chocolate and other types of candy, while decorated baskets replaced nests. Additionally, children often left out carrots for the bunny in case he got hungry from all his hopping."

While Robesonia, Pennsylvania potter, Lester Breininger (1935-2011) produced his share of commemorative sgraffito Easter eggs in the twentieth and twenty-first century, I have not found much evidence to reveal that American potters produced many Easter related objects in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.

In fact, outside of a nineteenth century nested chicken lead glazed red earthenware candy dish that is privately owned in Pennsylvania today, I had not until recently seen any Easter related candy dishes or eggs before. However, I just acquired this hand-painted red earthenware Easter egg from an antiques dealer in Fall River, Massachusetts. The egg was made in North Cambridge, Massachusetts after 1871, and the hand-painted bird's nest with eggs and flowers is likely original. The base is impressed, "A.H. HEWS & CO. / NO. CAMBRIDGE / MASS."

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins' (1897-1982) book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares, "Far more important of these minor potteries was one founded by Abraham Hews (1741-1818) in Weston, Massachusetts in 1765. The beautiful house that he later built and occupied is standing today on the Main Street, just east of the Baptist church. The earthenware workshop stood a short distance east of the house.

For 100 years the successive generations of the family carried on their trade in this building. About the time of the Civil War a new shop was built on the other side of the Post Road, where it joins the present highway.

In 1871, the shop in turn was abandoned, and the whole manufacture moved to its present site in North Cambridge. The firm name A.H. Hews was then adopted.

When the manufactory was transferred to its larger buildings in Cambridge, it employed 15 men and produced annually 800,000 pieces of ware, principally flowerpots. By 1889 the force had grown to 85 or 100 men and the yearly output to 7,000,000 pieces.

In prosperous seasons the Hews pottery, in addition to other ornamental wares, has made as many as 20,000,000 flowerpots. Its growth, must, of course be attributed to machine methods that make possible such a large output. Although several potters still work there at the wheel, the restrictions of mass-production preclude any vigorous self-expression."

My feeling is that this Easter egg was likely produced sometime in the 1870s-1890s, when the company employed artists to hand-paint some of the decorative wares, such as the company's line of reproduction Grecian-style pottery, vases and some flowerpots. The paint as well as the mark seem to fit appropriately with the company's production from this period.

Hand-Painted Easter Egg