Earlier this year, I posted a story to this website that read, "I have always considered this slip-script red earthenware plate that is inscribed "Day's Pottery" to be the most iconic example of Norwalk, Connecticut red earthenware known to exist today. The plate was made at the Absalom Day (1770-1843) Pottery in Norwalk about 1796. The back is also marked with initials inside of a heart that appear to read "AW."
Furthermore, it has a rather interesting history of ownership over the past forty or so years, whereas a good friend told me that he remembers seeing this plate for sale in the window of an antique shop in New York City in the 1980s. He said the shop was closed and when he came back the plate had been sold to a well-known New York dealer.
This plate was eventually acquired by legendary folk art collector Barry Cohen in New York City, whereas it was then sold by Connecticut antiques dealer David Schorsch to New York City dealers Diana & Garrison Stradling, who then sold it to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
Interestingly, this plate may not have been widely known before the 1980s, seeing that I cannot find any record of it having ever been illustrated or referenced in publication. However, while visiting Manhattan last weekend, I saw this original advertisement from the Stradlings - and I thought it was awesome! This is the original draft before it was published in The Magazine Antiques in 1990. I consider this a form of modern artwork today! And this was also the second time it was published, previously having just been published in David Schorsch's catalog of the Barry Cohen Collection.
More recently, this plate was published in Richard Miller's article in the 2016 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, Norwalk (Connecticut) Slip-script Pottery, the Potters, and Related Ware. This plate will also be published in my forthcoming Western New York book, which will also discuss New York City and touch upon some red earthenware production elsewhere in the state."
Nevertheless, there is probably a circa late-1790s slip-decorated red earthenware plate that is owned by the Staten Island Historical Society in New York, which is attributed to Absalom Day that is impressed with the same mark on the back, however the initials inside the heart appear to read "AWJ" or "ANJ."
I view these marks as being monograms, although the meaning behind them is unknown to me and the shape of the heart on each object seems slightly different; the dictionary definition of a monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a cypher (e.g. a royal cypher) and is not a monogram.
Does anyone reading this post know the actual meaning behind these marks? And just as important, are there other examples of this type of marked production known today from the Day Pottery?
Note: For more information about red earthenware and stoneware on Staten Island, see a feature story that I wrote for the January 31, 2020 issue Antiques And the Arts Weekly, titled, Early Red Earthenware & Stoneware Found On Staten Island: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2020/01/early-red-earthenware-and-stoneware.html.
Slip-Decorated Plates Made at the Absalom Day Pottery
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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