EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Large Colorful Red Earthenware Dish Found at the Antique Shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts

Friday, July 12, 2019

Large Colorful Red Earthenware Dish Found at the Antique Shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts

As I noted yesterday, after a really slow day on Tuesday at the antique shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts, I was walking around a field known as "Hertan's" on Wednesday, when I found two intriguing pieces of nineteenth century red earthenware in the booth of Falmouth, Massachusetts antiques dealer, Hilary Nolan.

This was actually the first piece I saw, which I am not sure if it is an unusual pie plate or some sort of really large flowerpot saucer. Although, the reason I am unsure of its intended purpose is because there is basically no wear on the interior of the dish, which I would expect to see if it were used to hold a flowerpot, thus why myself and others thought it could be a pie plate or thereabouts. But the glazed base does reveal extensive wear from use.

Nonetheless, the glaze is what immediately drew me to this object, which has been decorated extensively with a dabbed green glaze.The technique used to create this decoration almost reminds of a style found on tan stoneware manufactured in places like Kentucky and western Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, commonly known today as "cat's paw decoration." However, kaolin slip-decoration can be found along the exterior wall, whereas the use of colors on this object also reminds me of red earthenware manufactured in southeastern Pennsylvania in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth century.

I asked Hilary where he discovered this dish in Brimfield, and he said he found it on Monday in a Pennsylvania dealer's booth along with some other pottery from Pennsylvania and Baltimore.

Large Red Earthenware Dish Found in Brimfield, Mass.