Three or four years ago, I found this late nineteenth or early twentieth century majolica type earthenware hanging basket (flowerpot) in a group antique shop in Rowley, Massachusetts, although I was told it was found years ago in an old house located to the north of Boston. I have never been sure whether it was made in America or Europe, although I have always suspected that it had a chance to be American made.
Furthermore, the basket was molded, while the flowers and leaves appear to have been hand-modeled. But when I found this object, I had hoped that it may have been made by the Odell & Booth Brothers in Tarrytown, New York, circa 1880-1884, which is located along the Hudson River about twenty miles north of the Bronx in New York City.
The history of the Odell & Booth Brothers is rather fascinating, too, whereas in 1880, Charles Mortimer Odell (1848-1925) established the factory with Henry and Walter Booth, two brothers from Staffordshire, England. Some good examples of this company's production are displayed in the Americana Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey and the Baltimore Museum of Art. It some ways, this company's production also goes with some of the great pottery that was produced in Brooklyn during this period, also found displayed at the MET, as well as the Brooklyn Museum.
An identifying aspect of this company's decorative pottery included the use of applied flowers and leaves, especially in the style of those found on this hanging basket, a type of production that was also created by a variety of others red earthenware and stoneware potters in the late 1800s, which were located in the Mid-Atlantic region, Ohio, West Hartford, Connecticut and in Massachusetts, as well as perhaps other locations. However, the Odell & Booth Brothers also utilized an impressed company mark that read "O&BB" and a signed mark with the same letters. Although, this basket does not appear to be marked, but the stamp was also usually applied to a flat base.
Other forms produced in Tarrytown included a majolica dog pitcher that is similar to types manufactured by the Haig Pottery in Philadelphia, along with more traditional pitchers and a wide variety of vases, among possibly other shapes.
Nevertheless, the popularity of hanging planters speaks to the Victorian-era penchant for botany and horticulture—and the trend toward building conservatories and greenhouses, where these types of planters were displayed. Production of these types of majolica planters were also quite popular with pottery factories in the United Kingdom and Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Thoughts?
Note: Here is a link to another object decorated in a similar style that I found last year in central New Hampshire: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2023/04/a-great-stoneware-vase-with-applied.html?fbclid=IwAR09ONwnRndU-Df800eWyUckbXwXp7l3jfFllIYyQQQrwp91gGRbH-rkcFo.
Majolica Type Earthenware Hanging Basket
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