EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Remarkable Example of Red Earthenware from the Nathaniel Rochester Pottery in Western New York

Monday, July 1, 2019

A Remarkable Example of Red Earthenware from the Nathaniel Rochester Pottery in Western New York

According to the Genesee Country Village and Museum, "After the American Revolution, when land in Western New York opened up for settlement, men and women left their rocky farms in New England and moved west. Pennsylvanians and Marylanders migrated from the south.

The pioneers who rushed to clear and develop the rich frontier were all hoping to improve their lot. Some would turn back. Some would be struck by Genesee Fever, a form of malaria. Some would move on to Ohio and Michigan. But many would stay.

In 1801, Colonel Nathaniel Rochester (1751-1831) left his comfortable circumstances in Hagerstown, Maryland, to move north to 155 acres in Dansville, New York, that had been bought on his trip to the Genesee Country in September 1800. The perilous 275-mile journey north through almost impassible mountains took three weeks.

On horseback the Colonel led a procession of carriages bearing the younger children and women of the household and three great Conestoga wagons with household goods, his ten slaves and some of his neighbors who came along to help. The Colonel moved north, he said, "to escape the influence of slavery, to set his slaves free and to rear his family in a free state."

In Dansville, Colonel Rochester purchased from David Scholl a plank house, believed to have been built around 1797 - and once settled in Dansville, he purchased most of the water rights at Canaseraga Creek. Colonel Rochester erected a large paper mill and a gristmill. In the meantime, he began to survey the 100 acre-tract at the falls of the Genesee River that he and his colleagues had purchased in 1803.

After five years in Dansville, Colonel Rochester moved to a large farm in East Bloomfield, New York, and continued his work laying out what would become the Village of Rochester. In 1818, he and his family finally moved near the falls into a house with a large garden and grounds sloping down to the river. In 1824, he erected a brick house on higher ground where he resided for the rest of his life."

As I have recently noted in earlier posts from this year, Rochester also offered some of his property in the Village in 1818, which was to be used as a pottery. Rochester was not the potter himself, but the business is known by his name today. The potter or potters who worked at the Rochester Pottery produced some of the earliest wares in this region. Although, to my knowledge, the name is not known of the potter or potters employed here, but they were clearly skilled in their craft by what is known about this pottery from both archaeology and surviving objects.

This remarkable slip-decorated red earthenware jar is an object that I have admired for a few years now. It was formerly owned by Victor, New York antiques dealer and collector Gene Pratt, and more recently included in the collection of Sheffield, Massachusetts antiques dealer Sam Herrup.

I was fortunate to acquire this jar for my collection yesterday at the 19th Annual Wells, Maine Outdoor Antiques Show & Sale on the grounds of historic Laudholm Farm. I feel this jar demonstrates one of best forms made at the Rochester Pottery, and the glaze is just about as good as it gets.

Nathaniel Rochester Pottery Jar