EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Flea Market Find: New England Red Earthenware Vase Inspired from Chinese Porcelain Production

Monday, September 30, 2019

Flea Market Find: New England Red Earthenware Vase Inspired from Chinese Porcelain Production

While walking around Todd Farm Antique and Flea Market yesterday morning in Rowley, Massachusetts, my niece and I found this intriguing nineteenth century New England red earthenware vase, decorated with gold paint. The form is very similar to a group of vases with elongated necks made by Hugh Robertson (1845-1908) circa 1882-89 at the Chelsea Keramic Art Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts. An excellent selection of these type of vases can be found in the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection in the Americana Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. The form was inspired after Chinese porcelain vases of a similar shape produced in many different sizes.

According to the MET, "The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection showcases the continuum of artistic ceramics in the United States from 1876-1956. The earliest examples date to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the catalyst for the emerging American art pottery movement. Ceramists absorbed styles and techniques from France and England, and from the Far East. The tradition of painted ceramics was explored in a myriad of ways."

However, I do not believe the vase we found was made in Chelsea, and the gold paint may also be original to where it was manufactured. I asked the dealer where he found it, and he told me that he discovered the vase earlier this year along Maine's mid-coast region.

The only other businesses in New England that come to mind for this type of production were those operated by Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) in Beverly, Massachusetts and Thomas Nickerson's 1897-1908 Merrimac Pottery Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Although, this does not appear to be anything made in Newburyport.

Interestingly, the Beverly Pottery did employ an artist from Marblehead, Massachusetts by the name of Thomas Pitman, who painted many of the objects that were copied and imitated from other countries. But I have not seen this type of Chinese production from Beverly before, but the business was certainly aware of the trends in the American pottery industry during this period. The clay and manufacture of the base is also in keeping with the wares made at the C.A. Lawrence Pottery. Gold paint is also found on some of the decorated wares from this business owned by the Beverly Historical Society.

New England Red Earthenware Vase Inspired from Chinese Production