Published in my fourth book from Historic Beverly, titled, South Amesbury's Red Earthenware & Stoneware: The 1791-1820 William Pecker Pottery - I cite the fact that there is a potter working in Manhattan in the early 1800s with this same name. I also wrote in my book that during this same period William Pecker (1757-1820) was regularly trying to sell all of his business and land assets in South Amesbury (Merrimacport), which was regularly advertised in newspapers in Newburyport, Massachusetts. And even though there has been some previous speculation that Pecker learned how to make stoneware in Charlestown in the early 1800s, I have always suspected that he was a trained New York City stoneware potter based on these records.
Furthermore, this potter named William Pecker is also included in the New York Historical Society's new landmark exhibit in Manhattan, titled, Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw.
Pecker is cited alongside the names Thomas Commeraw, Crolius, Remmey and David Morgan, among others in the exhibit, which was taken from information published in the 1805 edition of Longworth's American Almanack, New York Register, and City Directory.
Nevertheless, I have always felt that William Pecker's stoneware production is greatly underappreciated today because he was not only one of the first potters in America to simultaneously produce red earthenware and stoneware, but also due to the fact that I have always believed that his stoneware production materialized from the industry in Manhattan.
William Pecker's Name Included in the New Thomas Commeraw Exhibit
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
No comments:
Post a Comment