Found in the collection of The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut is what I consider to be one of the best stoneware objects known from Abraham Mead (1742-1827) today, which the museum describes as a "salt container." The small bottle or flask is displayed in the museum’s permanent gallery, and was gifted to the museum in 1956 by Winfred S. Mills.
According to the Connecticut Historical Society, "Abraham Mead was born in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1742; he was the eleventh son of Ebenezer Mead II (1692-1775) and Hannah (Brown) Mead (1691-1746) who married in 1717, although his father married a second time in 1735 to Ruth (Reynolds) Mead (1704-1740). His father's family traced their lineage to William Mead of England, who came to America in 1635 via the Massachusetts colony; his mother was a descendant of Peter Brown, who came from Rye, Sussex, England on the "Mayflower." At the age of fourteen, Abraham Mead became an apprentice to the potter Adam Staats, who is considered to be Connecticut's first stoneware potter. After his apprenticeship, Mead opened his own pottery in the Horseneck area of Greenwich. He remained in Greenwich and was the master to several Connecticut stoneware potters, including his master's son, Adam States, who later worked in Stonington, Connecticut." Mead was also known as “Deacon Potter,” since he was both a deacon of the Second Congregational Church and the owner of a successful pottery.
Mead shipped his pottery far along the coast in his own barges, and he paid off the debt of the church on Meeting House Hill in Greenwich with income from his pottery and then served as town treasurer for a decade, beginning in 1787.
It was also about 1799 that the successful Mead built a farmhouse on eight acres of land in Greenwich; crowning the circular summer house on the front lawn of the Mead property in what was then known as Horse Neck Field Point, stood a womanly ship’s figurehead with rosy cheeks and black eyes, gowned in flowing white robes over a hoop skirt. Originally the figurehead fronted the clipper ship, the Lady Lancashire, commanded by William L. Lyon, although the figurehead now resides in a New York City museum.
Note: For more information about Mead - see a story that I posted to this website in April of this year, titled, A Stoneware Jar Made in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1791 that Until Recently Descended Through Mead Family Ownership: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2024/04/a-stoneware-jar-made-in-greenwich.html.
Stoneware Bottle or Flask Made by Abraham Mead in 1789
Pleas Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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