In my most recent feature story published on pages 42-43 in the June 7, 2024 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, Nathaniel Rochester's Red Earthenware Pottery, I discussed the history of this business in West Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2024/05/new-published-feature-story-in-antiques.html.
The story covered the life and career of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831), a veteran of the American Revolution, who owned a pottery business in West Bloomfield, New York, circa 1818-1831. Although, part of the story also covered Rochester's 1831 will that I recently came across while going through some archives owned in New York. But he was also instrumental in the early development in part of the Western New York region, most notably founding the settlement that would become Rochester, New York, as well as playing a role in the development and implementation of the Erie Canal.
Rochester established his pottery business about 1818 in a field in West Bloomfield, while all of this was happening at the same time; i.e. planning the Erie Canal, founding of city Rochester, among other business dealings. He even appears to have been involved with some baptisms in Rochester in the 1820s.
But among the reasons Rochester is so well known today is partially credited to his pottery business, where he employed an incredibly skilled unnamed potter or potters. These wares were often very colorfully glazed with a variety of slip colors. I have always suspected in theory that there is a Hagerstown, Maryland connection with this pottery business, seeing that Rochester was also tied to that community, serving one term in the Maryland General Assembly and two years as the postmaster of Hagerstown.
Interestingly, among the objects owned by the Rochester Museum & Science Center that are unrelated to Rochester's pottery business, but still significant is a 1780s embroidered silk waistcoast that belonged to Nathaniel Rochester, along with an original 1820 letter from Nathaniel Rochester to Henry Clay (1777-1852) describing the ruin that would result in the Genesee region if the bill to prohibit exportation of produce to British possessions on the American continent is passed.
Rochester was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia; he was the son of John and Hester Thrift Rochester. His siblings were William, John, Ann, Phillis and Esther (or Hester). The Virginia farm had been the American home of the family since 1689, when Nathaniel's forebear, Nicholas Rochester, migrated from his English home in the county of Kent. It was located near the birthplaces of both George Washington and James Monroe, and later developments in Nathaniel's career indicate a possibility that he may have been acquainted with Monroe during his boyhood.
Nonetheless, while going through some old photo files yesterday on my computer, I came across pictures of this jar that were sent to me by Ohio antiques dealer and show promoter Steve Sherhag. I have no idea when the photos were sent to me, although this is a very nice jar probably made at the Rochester Pottery in West Bloomfield in the 1820s.
Note: Here is a link to a preview of the feature story that I posted on this website last month: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2024/05/a-preview-of-my-next-feature-story-that.html
19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware from Western New York
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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