18th or Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Syrup Jar Sells in Amesbury, Massachusetts

According to an article written by Barbara H. Magid for the 2005 edition of Ceramics in America, titled, Sugar Refining Pottery from Alexandria and Baltimore: "From at least the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century the sugar refining industry used two unique forms of industrial pottery: thick rimmed syrup jars (pots) and conical sugar molds. These distinctive forms have been found at archaeological sites in Cyprus, England (Southampton, Exeter, York and Bristol), France (Sadirac, Rouen and Bourdeaux), the West Indies, Faneuil Hall in Boston, the Lambert-Douglas Plantation site in Trenton, New Jersey, and the Metropolitan Detention Center site in Philadelphia. They were also used for nineteenth century sugar refineries in Alexandria, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland."

These types of jars have also been discovered in eighteenth century archaeological contexts throughout coastal New England, including Portsmouth, New Hampshire, York, Maine and Charlestown, Massachusetts. I have also found a few intact jars through the years, such as examples found in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Annisquam, Massachusetts and Arundel, Maine.

Furthermore, thanks to Ryan Beckman, who produces maple sugar at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts each March, I learned a few yeas ago that the marks on these types of jars were used as a grading process, "A+, AA, B, BB, C. etc." 

Nevertheless, this eighteenth or early nineteenth century red earthenware syrup jar just sold in John McInnis' most recent auction in Amesbury, Massachusetts. The jar is marked below the rim with two slash marks, which I suspect was also possibly used in the grading process - although, the use of slash marks was also a technique or style used to mark some jars made by stoneware potters working in the South in the 1800s. This particular jar may have also been produced in the Caribbean.

The jar sold for $100 plus the auction premium.

18th or Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Syrup Jar

18th or Early Century Red Earthenware Molasses Jar 

Possibly Manufactured in the Caribbean

Stands 17" Tall

A Funnel Used for Sugar Production Would Have Sat On Top of this Jar

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Photo Courtesy: John McInnis

A View of the Two Slash Marks

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Photo Courtesy: John McInnis

A View of the Base

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Photo Courtesy: John McInnis

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