Some Recent Thrift Stores Finds Across the American Northeast, Including a 19th Century Object Found in the Portland, Maine Area

If you happen to follow my Instagram account, then you will see that I have been spending some time recently with my niece Alexis visiting some of the local thrift stores in the Boston area. We have found a few objects of interest over the past six months or so, although nothing like what some other people have found, such as a late eighteenth or early nineteenth century green glazed red earthenware jar from Bristol County, Massachusetts that was found in a thrift store in New York. That jar later sold at Crocker Farm in Sparks, Maryland in October of 2019 for over $500, whereas a jar in worst condition of a similar shape and glaze just sold last weekend at Casco Bay Auctions in Freeport, Maine for over $3,000, including the buyer's premium. Here is a link to a story that I posted to this website in 2018 about the discovery of the jar in New York: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2018/02/a-wonderful-green-glazed-bristol-county.html.

Furthermore, another good object found in a thrift store in the past few years was discovered in Western Pennsylvania, whereas that slip decorated object then sold through Crocker Farm in the fall of 2023 for over $5,000. The late eighteenth or early nineteenth century tea cannister was likely made somewhere in Pennsylvania, and it also retained an old hand-written note, reading, "Tea Caddy given to Mirian Glick by / her Aunt Sadie Spearman, Jan 3, 1930, who received same from her Grand mother- Sally Mathis Landen- Aunt Sadies father if living / would be 112 years of age, consequently the / Tea Caddy is around 140 years of age."

Interestingly, this nineteenth century red earthenware food mold was recently found in a Goodwill store in the Portland, Maine area. The food mold is a type usually associated with Vermont, a style of production that was rather unusual for New England, although more commonly produced in the Mid-Atlantic region and in parts of Western New York in the 1800s.

19th C. Food Mold Found in the Portland, Maine Area

19th Century Red Earthenware Food Mold Likely Made in Vermont

Recently Found in a Thrift Store in the Portland, Maine Area

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Photo Courtes: Matt Anson

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