A Private Collection of Jars Likely Made at the Peter Clark Pottery in Lyndeborough, New Hampshire

As I promised a few days ago, here is my collection of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century red earthenware jars that I believe were made by Peter Clark and his family in Lyndeborough, New Hampshire. The newest addition is the jar furthest to the right, which I just purchased last weekend from New Hampshire antiques dealer, John Rogers at Josh and Rachel Gurley's annual Thanksgiving weekend antique show in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

I posted earlier this week, "A feature story I wrote about Peter Clark's (1743-1826) pottery production in Braintree, Massachusetts and Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, titled, "A Pottery Moves to New Hampshire: Peter Clark and His Family in Lyndeborough" was published in the August 2016 issue of the New England Antiques Journal, now the Digital Antiques Journal.

Clark was an Essex County, Massachusetts trained potter, who established a business in Braintree in the 1760s, before migrating to Lyndeborough in January of 1775. As it would be expected, the pottery made thereafter by Clark in New Hampshire presented a strong coastal Massachusetts influence in form. He then taught his sons the trade, some of whom helped establish the industry in Concord, New Hampshire in the 1790s, which the family was involved with until the 1880s.

I find these type of jars regularly attributed to Massachusetts, but based on archaeology and examples of Peter Clark's production in the New Hampshire Historical Society, I believe all of these jars were made by Peter Clark and the Clark family in New Hampshire. The jars also vary in size and somewhat in form, and some are manufactured with all types of incised lines. But they all present the same large round footed base (among other features), a characteristic that Clark learned in coastal Massachusetts, which he then brought with him to New Hampshire months before the Revolutionary War began."

In the next week or so, I plan to post a jug I own that I believe was also made at the Peter Clark Pottery, which I found years ago near Lyndeborough. The jug is manufactured with a large round footed base, which is a strong characteristic of wares made in coastal Massachusetts. And it may date to the eighteenth century. But this type of base is also found on wares manufactured at the industry in North Yarmouth, Maine, which was established by an Essex County trained potter, who migrated from Newburyport, Massachusetts in the 1790s. For more on this industry, I suggest a research story I wrote that was published in the November 2019 issue of Maine Antique Digest, titled, "The Yarmouth, Maine, Pottery Industry, 1791-1890."

Red Earthenware Jars Likely Made at the Peter Clark Pottery in Lyndeborough, N.H.

Collection of Red Earthenware Jars Likely Made at the Peter Clark Pottery in Lyndeborough, N.H.

Circa 1775-1826

Largest Stands 11" Tall

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