Over the next couple of weeks or so, I will periodically be posting some of my finds from this week in Brimfield, Massachusetts, although this is probably the earliest object that I found. I believe this late eighteenth or early nineteenth century slip decorated red earthenware plate was made at the Absalom Day (1770-1843) Pottery in Norwalk, Connecticut, circa 1790s-1810. The plate was previously owned privately in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and said to have been found years ago in New England.
Furthermore, this is now the fifth different slip technique that I have been able to acquire through the years on a plate, charger or dish that is thought to have been made at the Day Pottery (see last photo for other four examples). Additionally, the manner of the trailed three line slip on this plate seems quite rare today, seeing that it is applied in somewhat of an abstract design, rather than in a more uniform direction, like much of the American slip decorated red earthenware flatware that exists today.
Interestingly, it is thought that some of the fancier slip decorated red earthenware made during the circa 1795-1805 period at the Day Pottery in Norwalk was created by John Betts Gregory (1782-1842), who trained under Day before leaving for Long Island and later upstate New York.
The first mention of Day's Pottery in publication seems to have been in 1896, when Reverend Charles Melbourne Selleck (1831-1909) wrote Norwalk, "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."
For more information about John Betts Gregory - see a feature story I wrote for the April 16, 2021 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, The Wares Made By John Betts Gregory In Clinton, New York: An Examination Of Empire State Regional Redware.
And -- red earthenware made at the Day Pottery, as well as archaeology from some of the other businesses in Norwalk can be seen in my latest book, titled, A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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