Preview of My Forthcoming Colonial Charlestown, Mass. Pottery Book

As I have already written, the sequel to my Beverly Pottery book, The Moses B. Paige Company: The Last of the Peabody Potteries will be available to purchase in the next few weeks to month or so. However, I wanted to share a preview of the front and back covers of my forthcoming book, The Dawn of Independence, the Death of an Industry: The Pottery of Charlestown, Massachusetts, which will be available to purchase this summer or early fall. This book is the culmination of a number of years worth of research, and it is because of this research that I originally established this website.

About the book:
The seventeenth and eighteenth century red earthenware industry in Charlestown, Massachusetts supplied households throughout coastal New England with everyday utilitarian wares, circa 1635-1775. The industry was unsurpassed in Colonial New England with production recovered from archaeological contexts as far north as Canada and as far south as the Carolinas. Dozens of potters and a number of businesses made up this industry, where the most prominent years of production happened during the 1740-1775 period. There was even an attempt to produce stoneware in the 1740s in competition to what was already manufactured in New York City, Philadelphia and Virginia. However, the identity of this industry was completely destroyed on the morning of June 17, 1775, when the British burned the town to the ground at the Battle of Bunker Hill. More than 200 years later, the identity of this industry resurfaced when archaeologists excavated part of Charlestown on behalf of Boston's Big Dig Project. These important artifacts helped provide a better understanding of how far Charlestown's pottery traveled before 1775. This book is the first of its kind, exploring the history of Charlestown's industry, the identity of the pottery, the exports and its historical significance.

The book is being published as part of my book series through Historic Beverly in Beverly, Massachusetts. It runs about 175 pages and there are more than 200 pictures.

The Dawn of Independence, the Death of an Industry: The Pottery of Charlestown, Massachusetts

The Dawn of Independence, the Death of an Industry: The Pottery of Charlestown, Massachusetts

Available Later this Year Through Historic Beverly in Massachusetts

See Article for More Information

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