Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Dish from the Collection of the Staten Island Historical Society

Published in the January 31, 2020 issue of Antiques & the Arts Weekly is a research story I wrote about some of the utilitarian pottery found on Staten Island in New York City in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, titled, Early Red Earthenware & Stoneware Found on Staten Island. The article presented some great archaeology, as well as objects that retained a local history of ownership from the collection of Historic Richmond Town at the Staten Island Historical Society.

This slip-decorated red earthenware dish is included in the historical society's collection, although it was not published in the article because it does not retain as strong a context of ownership as the other pieces that were illustrated.

The museum suggests this dish was made by Absalom Day (1770-1843) in Norwalk, Connecticut, seeing that the style of the slip is a design known to have been produced by Day. In fact, some of the slip technique is also similar to that found on a slip-script advertising dish, inscribed, "Day's Pottery," which was made by Day, now owned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as published in an article written by Richard Miller for the 2016 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, Norwalk (Connecticut) Slip-script Pottery, the Potters and Related Ware.

Interestingly, though the back of this dish has been impressed with a serrated heart and the initials "AWJ." I have not been able to determine the meaning of this mark, although I have seen similar marks (but not exactly the same) with archaeology recovered in Philadelphia, as well as a Philadelphia slip-decorated red earthenware dish that was recovered in Albany, New York, now kept at the New York State Museum.

Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Dish Impressed with a Heart and Initials

 Late-18th or Early-19th Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Dish

The Style of the Slip Resembles Some Techniques Manufactured by Absalom Day in Norwalk, CT

Circa 1795-1815

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Staten Island Historical Society

The Back Has Been Impressed with a Serrated Heart and the Initials "AWJ"

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Staten Island Historical Society

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