The small area of Chesham Village in New Hampshire materialized into a red earthenware industry in the 1800s, which is located in the southwestern part of the state, near where the borders of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont all meet. It is an industry that is not entirely understood today, although very significant into the history and progression of red earthenware manufactured in a country New England setting.
This industry in Chesham Village, also known as "Pottersville" was found in the town of Marlborough and Dublin; the names Bennett, Clark, Felton, Fitch, Furber, Greenwood, Metcalf, Russell, Sargeant, Smith and Wight were all involved with this industry. In fact, the Southwick family of potters from South Danvers (Peabody after 1855), Massachusetts were also involved with production in Chesham Village. The Southwick potters were descendants of Lawrence (1598-1660) and Cassandra Southwick (1598-1660), who were persecuted for their Quaker faith in Salem, Massachusetts in the seventeenth century.
Nevertheless, I have been admiring this giant green glazed red earthenware jug for a few days now that I just acquired, which is attributed to Chesham Village in the 1840s or 1850s, based on extant museum and published objects, and I think this may very well be the most significant surviving red earthenware jug known from New Hampshire today. I have never seen anything like it before - and I know that's a bold statement, but this piece embodies so much more of a history than the typical glazed utilitarian wares produced throughout the state in the 1700s and 1800s.
The form of this likely two gallon fourteen inch tall jug was manufactured to imitate stoneware, which was prevalent in places like Vermont and New York during this period. And then the spectacular green copper oxide glaze certainly adds an aesthetic appeal. Interestingly, the use of green glazes in Chesham Village may have only been second in abundance in New England during the period to the wares made in Bristol County, Massachusetts, circa 1780-1830.
I also want to add that I compare the significance, idea, history, glaze, form and size of this jug in New Hampshire, to a much better known red earthenware jug made by Lorenzo Johnson in Newstead, Erie County, New York, circa 1850. This jug has been published and was previously owned by New York archaeologist and museum specialist George R. Hamell. I think the idea behind these jugs is very similar, and the Johnson jug is considered to be one of the more important pieces of Western New York stoneware known today.
According to the exhibit catalog, Clay in the Hands of the Potter: An Exhibition of Pottery Manufactured in the Rochester and Genesee Valley Region, Circa 1793-1900, which was published by the Rochester Museum and Science Center in 1974, "Lorenzo Johnson operated a lead-glazed earthenware pottery in the extreme southwestern corner of the Town of Newstead as early as 1850. By 1866 he was producing both red earthenware and drain tile. Sometime after 1880, but before 1887, he moved a few miles south to Mill Grove, Erie County where he was active in another pottery operation.
Among the potters who may have worked for Johnson at Newstead was James Banford. Banford resided in Newstead, circa 1854-1859. He had previously operated a red earthenware pottery in the Village of Avon, Livingston County, and prior to that he had been a resident of West Bloomfield.
From extant examples of Johnson's wares and from sherds collected from the pottery site, we can see that in at least some of his production, Johnson was obviously attempting to imitate stoneware in form, glaze color and decoration. His use of a blue slip floral decoration is a trait also shared by a couple of Ontario, Canada earthenware potters. Records do suggest that Johnson may have been a resident of Canada in the late-1840s, which was previous to his employment in western New York as a potter beginning around 1850."
Note: For more information about the industry in Chesham Village in New Hampshire - a research story I have written about a specific potter who worked there named Abner Smith Wight (1822-1905) should be out sometime in Maine Antique Digest. Although, Wight also had a significant impact with production in West Sterling, Worcester County, Massaschuetts, as well as Keene, New Hampshire, which is not far from Chesham Village.
A Red Earthenware Jug Made in the Form of Stoneware in SW New Hampshire
A Red Earthenware Jug Made to Imitate Stoneware in Western New York
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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