EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Recently Discovered Small Two-Color Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pot from Beverly, Mass.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

A Recently Discovered Small Two-Color Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pot from Beverly, Mass.

I was thrilled to acquire this small circa 1870 two-color slip-decorated red earthenware pot (possibly used as a match holder or toothpick holder) last week, which was made at the Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts.

The glaze is spectacular on this two-inch tall pot, whereas this is the first example of this form that I have seen with slip-decoration; the few other examples that I have seen are painted terracotta or unglazed red earthenware with one example bearing a centennial date of “1876.”

The history of this object is also appealing; I purchased it from Wells, Maine antiques dealer Kelly Harrison, who found it last summer at Todd’s Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Massachusetts. He also told me that he bought it from the daughter of a now deceased local antiques dealer and collector, who had owned it for many years. Basically, until this pot was purchased at the flea market, it had most likely survived no more than twenty-miles from where it was originally created in Beverly.

For more information - see the first book in my pottery book series published by Historic Beverly, titled, The Beverly Pottery: The Wares of Charles A. Lawrence: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-beverly-pottery-the-wares-of-charles-a-lawrence/.

Two-Color Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pot from Beverly, Mass.