New Discovery: Stoneware Jug Attributed to the William Pecker Pottery in Massachusetts Found in California

Some of the stories that I've heard through the years about early Southern stoneware found throughout New England continues to amaze me today, including a great face jug possibly from Columbia, South Carolina, otherwise Edgefield, South Carolina, which Massachusetts author Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) discovered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The face jug was later illustrated in Figure 109 when Early New England Potters and Their Wares was published in 1950; however, it is owned today by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Nonetheless, similar stories about New England pottery found all over America also amaze me, and there must be a story behind the recent discovery of this early nineteenth century salt glazed stoneware jug, having relocated more than 3,000 miles since it was originally produced.

This jug was just found by Leonard Gravier in an antique shop in Marysville, California, which is located about an hour north of Sacramento. And while the jug does exhibit some similarities to wares made in places like New York City, New Jersey and Charlestown, Massachusetts in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the stamped flower decoration that has been filled in with cobalt, as well as the ovoid shape of the jug, the handle and the foot at the base can all be used to attribute it to William Pecker's (1757-1820) stoneware production in South Amesbury (Merrimacport), Massachusetts, circa 1800-1820 (although more likely 1810-1820). Archaeological evidence recovered at the site of the Pecker Pottery also supports this attribution.

Interestingly, there are only a small group of jugs known from the Pecker Pottery today and almost all of them are manufactured with different features. To my knowledge, there are also less than twenty to twenty-five pieces of documented existing stoneware known from the Pecker Pottery today.

For more information - I suggest a book I wrote available through my book series at Historic Beverly in Massachusetts, titled, South Amesbury's Red Earthenware & Stoneware: The 1791-1820 William Pecker Pottery.

Stoneware Jug Attributed to the William Pecker Pottery Found in California

19th C. Stoneware Jug Attributed to the William Pecker Pottery in South Amesbury, Mass.

Circa 1800-1820

Recently Found in California

There are Only a Few Surviving Objects Known Today Bearing this Flower Stamp

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Leonard Gravier

A View of the Handle

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Leonard Gravier

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