Forthcoming Peabody Pottery Book and Fenway Court at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

Thanks to Connecticut potter, Guy Wolff I was able to include a great early photo of Fenway Court at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in my forthcoming book, The Moses B. Paige Company: The Last of the Peabody Potteries. Historic Beverly in Massachusetts is publishing the book and it coincides with another book I wrote that was published last year, The Beverly Pottery: The Wares of Charles A. Lawrence.

This early photo shows how Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) purchased a number of flowerpots made at the Paige Pottery that were used when Fenway Court opened in 1903. While another photo from around the same time period, also included in the book, reveals another context of ownership within Gardner's family, although, I am not going to reveal the details of that image until after the book has been published. Both pictures are wonderful demonstrating original contexts of ownership.

This photo is not included in the book, but it was taken among a group of pictures of Fenway Court in 1902 and 1903 by photographer, Thomas E. Marr (1850-1910). The Paige Pottery flowerpots were used throughout the garden for plants and shrubs, and some may even be illustrated in this photo. I cannot tell for sure, but the unglazed pots shown to the left with planted shrubs may have also been made at the Paige Pottery.

Born in Nova Scotia, Marr's photography is considered quite collectible today; he is best known for photographing Boston in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century. In fact, five of his original signed negatives from Fenway Court were consigned to Skinner in Boston in 2016.

Fenway Court at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Fenway Court at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Flowerpots Made at the Paige Pottery were Used in Fenway Court When it Opened in 1903

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Photo Courtesy: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...