I have posted many examples of multicolored or marbled slip decorated red earthenware made in America on this website over the last ten years or so, as well as some of these objects having also been published in articles that I have written for various national publications, along with my most recent book, titled, A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area.
Although, while walking around the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston a few months ago, I saw this familiar dish displayed in the Americana Wing that is from the same manufacturer as another dish that just sold in Crocker Farm's most recent Spring 2023 sale in Sparks, Maryland. The belief is that these were manufactured in Norwalk, Connecticut, although similar styles of slip decorated plates have also been recovered from multiple nineteenth century archaeological contexts on Long Island in New York.
The reason that similar wares are found in different places may be a result of different potters or perhaps a potter named John Betts Gregory (1782-1842), who worked in Norwalk, Long Island, Clinton, New York and back to Norwalk in the span of his career.
Furthermore, in 1896, Reverend Charles Melbourne Selleck (1831-1909) wrote the book Norwalk, writing in part, "In an attempt to bring the town's history fully to light, and to preserve and to perpetuate its mentions and memoirs. Many of these were gathered by the author while engaged in the necessarily hasty preparation of his 1886 St. Paul's Church centenary address in Norwalk, Connecticut, but most of them have since been collected, and their public presentation upon the eve of the town's quarter-millennial birth anniversary.
John Betts Gregory was born in Norwalk in 1782 to Abraham and Elizabeth Gregory, who lived where the late Henry Marvin resided, on East Avenue, and south of the ancient Beacham Lane. He learned his trade (potter) of Absalom Day (1770-1843) of "Old Well (neighborhood in Norwalk)." After his marriage to Olive (1786-1883), he had a good business offer from Huntington, Long Island, which he accepted. He afterward established a pottery in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, which required a building 140x40 for his operations. He returned in 1831 to Norwalk and bought from Samuel Hanford, Half-Mile Isle, paying $325.00. He there built a kiln for the burning of earthenware and stoneware. The kiln was erected in 1832 by masons Lewis and George Raymond of "Old Well." The business was here kept up until 1840. Mr. Gregory died July 22, 1842."
No comments:
Post a Comment