This is a type of red earthenware jug that every now and again appears in the American antiques marketplace, probably most often with auction houses, where the suggested attributions can vary. Although, I have always suspected that this shape of jug, which can differ in glaze colors was made by John Henry Benner in Abington, Massachusetts in the 1700s, whereas this jug sold today at Hartzell's Auction Gallery, Inc. in Bangor, Pennsylvania.
According to the Dyer Memorial Library in Abington, "A unique natural resource found in Abington, Massachusetts was a clay pit located behind the first meetinghouse. The high quality of the clay attracted John Henry Benner (1726-1796), a master potter to move to Abington, circa 1760. Benner was a German craftsman who had worked at the Glassworks in Germantown (now Quincy, Massachusetts). He lived and worked in Abington until the 1790s."
Massachusetts author Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) also discussed this exact clay pit in Early New England Potters and Their Wares, "...In 1942, I found Benner's waste pile in Abington on the very edge of a small clay pit filled with water. The recovered sherds were for the most part similar to artifacts found at the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company (circa 1764-1799) in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The one notable exception was a fragment of a bowl or a jar with slip stripings trailed horizontally on the outside. Much of Benner's ware is of a brilliant reddish orange color with splashings and dribblings of dark glaze. The pottery seems to have closed when Benner died on January 16, 1796."
Interestingly, I have also found that this type of heavy-made and wide handle that is applied on this type of jug is a style that is unlike most of the other types of handles made in New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Although, it is similar to some types produced in Pennsylvania, where there was a large German influence with production, whereas it is previously noted that Benner came to America from Germany.
Nevertheless, this jug sold today for a very reasonable $130 plus the buyer's premium.
Note: For more information about Benner - see the first chapter in my fifth book, titled, A Celebrated Industry: The Historic Wares of Southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County and Cape Cod: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-celebrated-industry-the-historic-wares-of-southeastern-massachusetts-bristol-county-and-cape-cod/. Additionally, there is also some information published about Benner in a feature story that I wrote for the August 21, 2020 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, A Look At 19th-Century Red Earthenware Figures Made in Pennsylvania: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2020/09/new-published-research-story-in.html.
A Red Earthenware Jug Possibly from the 1700s
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