This is a rather interesting large nineteenth century double-handled red earthenware jar with a green glaze that was recently found in a circa 1860s house in Dundas, a town and urban district near the port city of Hamilton, Ontario, which is located on the western tip of Lake Ontario.
The jar appears early for production from this area, standing nearly fifteen inches tall, although I suspect that it may have originated in Western New York, especially based on the intentionally unglazed top of the rim, perhaps suggesting that there may have originally been a lid, as well as the applied band found below the rim. Both of these are characteristics that I have studied in archaeology recovered from multiple potter's sites in Western New York that is owned today by the Rochester Museum & Science Center in Rochester, New York.
Furthermore, the style of the handles and the overall form of the jar is also a type found with production in Western New York, including possibly the Colonel Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831) Pottery in West Bloomfield, New York, circa 1818-1831, along with other potters in the West Bloomfield area.
Interestingly, the home where this jar was found is situated close to Darnley Mill in Crooks Hollow, a location that was founded by James Crooks (1778-1860), a Scottish immigrant who came to the area in 1805. The Hollow had its industrial beginnings around 1799-1801, when Jonathan Morden (1763-1803) built a sawmill on Spencer Creek, whereas Crooks built the area’s first gristmill that was completed around 1813, and he named it after his hero, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1546-1567), the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587).
During the war of 1812, Crooks, who saw the soldiers in the area were having a very difficult time, was building the Darnley Gristmill with the hopes of producing flour for bread. Crooks viewed Spencer Creek as not only a means to power the mill, but to provide water for the crops, as well as drinking water. Ten years later, the old gristmill was made into Upper Canada's first paper mill. But Crooks sold it off because of a lack of power.
However by 1829, the area now contained the three-story gristmill and other buildings such as a woollen mill, a tannery, a distillery, a linseed oil mill, a cooperage, a general store, a clothing factory, a foundry, a paper mill, an agricultural implement factory, log cabins for the workers and an inn. This area may have also attracted workers from America in the 1800s, in consideration of all that was happening. The business passed through several different ownerships in the nineteenth century, continuing to operate until 1934 when a fire took place, leaving only ruins.
There also aspects about this jar that are similar to Lorenzo Johnson's (born about 1821) production in Newstead, New York after 1850, as well as production that he was also involved with in Mill Grove, New York in the late 1800s. But I suspect this jar predates this period of production.
Red Earthenware Jar Found in a Circa 1860s Home in Ontario
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