EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Great Selection of Vermont Red Earthenware Sells at Duane Merrill and Company

Monday, August 26, 2019

Great Selection of Vermont Red Earthenware Sells at Duane Merrill and Company

This is a small, but exceptional collection of nineteenth century red earthenware from Vermont that sold last week at Duane Merrill & Company in Williston, Vermont. All of the wares were likely made in the East Middlebury, Vermont area. The collection was consigned from a Vermont home.

The most significant piece that sold was a jar that had been adorned with an applied manganese decoration on all four sides, a type of production that is directly related to a great jar currently on display in the Americana Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. This type of production has been previously published as being from Portland, Maine, but that is inaccurate information. In fact, the MET still attributes their jar to Maine. The only difference found in the manufacture of these two objects is that the museum's jar was produced with an ovoid shape, while the jar that just sold at Duane Merrill & Company was made with straight sides.

However, there are not a lot of these types of wares in existence today decorated with this exact style of glaze. Aside from these two objects, there is a jar known that sold last year at Skinner in Boston, a pan and another jar privately owned in Maine, as well as a mug, and possibly a few other jars.

The collection also included a really nice food mold decorated with a beautiful glaze, as well as another jar and a jug. There was a good amount of red earthenware made in Vermont in the 1800s, and these pieces serve as an example of the type of wares made in the central part of the state.

Great Vermont Red Earthenware Jar