An Update on My Forthcoming Book About Red Earthenware Production in the Hartford, Connecticut Area

For those interested - I was finalizing my forthcoming 450 or so page book earlier this week at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, titled, A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area, and I went through the entire archaeology collection recovered by archaeologists in the 1960s at the site of the Hervey Brooks (1779-1873) Pottery in Goshen, Connecticut, as well as the museum's research notes and archival photos on Brooks, and Brooks' 1822-1860 account books. 

Of everything I saw, I learned about some pieces that are still owned by the family that were last cited by the Walpole Historical Museum in 1937 - for instance, those pieces include a slip script red earthenware pitcher inscribed "Ann" that Brooks seems to have made for a grandchild born in 1827, and a slip decorated jar adorned with birds, somewhat similar to birds found on a few objects from Bristol County, Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. 

The iron stamp that Brooks used to mark some of his pottery (H. BROOKS) was also last known to be with the family in 1969, whereas, most of the tools, pottery, Brooks' wheel, among other objects that were owned by the family are now owned by the Litchfield, Connecticut Historical Society. But the family apparently kept some of the best stuff! Although, I am very curious about its whereabouts today, as is Old Sturbridge Village.

From all of the archaeology I handled, this nineteenth century yellow on black slip decorated red earthenware pan was among the most fascinating, seeing that it reminded me of some slipware made in Charlestown, Massachusetts before 1760, along with some pottery made in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan Recovered in Goshen, Connecticut

19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan

Recovered in the 1960s at Site of Hervey Brooks' Pottery in Goshen, Connecticut

Circa 1818-1864

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Old Sturbridge Village

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