Aside from the obvious condition issues, this is an extremely rare larger sized nineteenth century slip-script red earthenware plate, inscribed, "Indian Bitters," which was just sold last night by John McInnis in an online single owner estate auction in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The contents came from the 1740 Thomas Peach House in Old Town Marblehead.
I believe this plate was made at the Smith Pottery in Norwalk, circa 1825-1850 - although, I can not find any other example of American red earthenware with this inscription in slip, whether it be an archaeological artifact or an intact survivor; this may have also been an advertising plate that was used by a merchant or a general store owner. I think this is quite a rare object!
Furthermore, Asa E. Smith (1798-1880) was the nephew of Absalom Day's (1770-1843) wife and was apprenticed to Day in 1812, when he was fourteen years old. Day was one of the original potters in Norwalk, having traveled from New Jersey to Connecticut in the 1790s.
Day specialized in slip-script wares and sayings, as early as 1824, although he arrived in Norwalk from Morris County, New Jersey around 1792, where he had already been working as a potter. He went to work for Asa Hoyt Sr.'s (1745-1806) company, which is among the earliest known red earthenware businesses in southern Connecticut. Day purchased the company on January 1, 1796.
Asa E. Smith founded the Smith Pottery, later the Smith & Day Pottery, A.E. Smith & Sons, and A.E. Smith’s Sons’ Pottery Company, in 1825. His sons, Theodore, Asa, and Howard joined him between the late 1840s and early 1850s, which prompted them to call the business A. E. Smith & Sons. The pottery crafted and sold a large variety of stoneware and red earthenware, including jars, jugs, bowls, plates, teapots and pitchers, until it became insolvent in 1887.
Among the places that they sold their goods was from their warehouse at 38 Peck Slip in New York City. In fact, you can see some of the wares they made that have been recovered from various archaeological contexts in two articles that I wrote; the first was published in the October 2018 issue of Maine Antique Digest, titled, The Red Earthenware Available in the 18th and 19th Centuries in New York City; whereas the second was published by Untapped New York on April 30, 2020, titled, A Look Inside The NYC Archaeological Repository For City's Earliest Pottery.
For more information, see Richard Miller's article in the 2016 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, Norwalk (Connecticut) Slip-script Pottery, the Potters, and Related Ware.
The plate sold for $320 plus the auction premium.
Rare 19th Century Slip-Script Red Earthenware Plate Sells in Marblehead, Mass.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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