EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Red Earthenware Made at the Fenton Pottery in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the 1800s

Monday, August 5, 2024

The Red Earthenware Made at the Fenton Pottery in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the 1800s

The stoneware of St. Johnsbury, Vermont is rather well known today with some excellent examples represented in various art museums and private collections, although the most prized example may be a circa 1850s four-gallon stoneware cooler with a cobalt decoration that depicts a soldier and his wife, stamped "FENTON & HANCOCK / ST. JOHNSBURY, VT." This object last sold at Crocker Farms in Sparks, Maryland in 2006 for $88,000, including the buyer's premium: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2006-11-04/lot-1/FENTON-HANCOCK-ST-JOHNSBURY-VT-Water-Cooler/.

Another notable example of St. Johnsbury stoneware was actually recovered about two years ago from a landfill site in Vermont. The jug is missing its handle, but that certainly should not make a difference, seeing that it is adorned with a cobalt decoration of a man smoking a pipe, and stamped "L.Wm Fenton, St. Johnsbury." Interestingly, there is a similar decorated churn that I wrote about earlier this year from Fulton, New York, now owned as part of Adam Weitsman's Collection at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/search?q=Weitsman+pipe+churn.

19th Century Cobalt Decorated Stoneware Jug Recovered from a Landfill in Vermont

Decorated with a Man Smoking a Pipe

"L.Wm Fenton, St. Johnsbury"

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Private Collection

Nevertheless, it may not be known widely today that some of the earliest household pottery manufactured in St. Johnsbury was made from red earthenware; in fact, some of it can be mistaken for production from elsewhere in northern New England. This is also a subject that can be taken into consideration for red earthenware production in Vermont, where production in places likely Middlebury, Vermont is widely known, but the the state collectively employed a number of red earthenware businesses, which can (and probably have been) overlooked through the years for the state's prolific stoneware industry. This is also a subject that I cover in my forthcoming New Hampshire book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses, where there were red earthenware potters who trained in New Hampshire, some of whom worked under the Clark family and then relocated to Vermont in order to established their own business.

Furthermore, it was published in a book written by Edward Fairbanks in 1914, titled, The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont: “An old-time land mark with low red buildings west of the river (Passumpsic) half a mile south of the Center Village, was the Pottery established in 1808 by Gen. R. W. Fenton, somewhile known as the St. Johnsbury Stone Ware Pottery. Its products were in constant demand until the introduction of tinware. The business was successfully carried on by Gen. Fenton and by his son Leander until the entire establishment went down in flames November, 1859. All sorts of domestic ware were turned out on those potters' wheels, from jugs, jars, bowls, bottles and milk pans, at a dollar a dozen, to fancy flower pots at sixty cents each, and St. Johnsbury pottery gained high repute; occasionally surviving specimens of it may still be seen. The power was supplied by a merry little brook that came tumbling down the hillside."

Richard Webber Fenton was the son of Jonathan and Mary Cary Fenton, born September 4, 1771. The family relocated to Dorset, Vermont in 1801 after Richard married Leefe Harrington in Walpole, New Hampshire in 1801.

Furthermore, New York author and historian Warren Broderick has done extensive research into the Fenton Pottery in St. Johnsbury finding receipts for glazes written by Leander W. Fenton about 1854, which are owned today by the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. He has also found that Richard's brother, Jonathan Fenton, the well-known Boston potter came to Dorset, Vermont from Walpole, New Hampshire about 1800, which is around the same time his brother, Richard, moved from Walpole to St. Johnsbury. Jonathan's pottery in Dorset operated from about 1801-1810 and he first produced red earthenware before manufacturing salt-glazed stoneware.

Nonetheless, this nineteenth century covered red earthenware handle pot with likely its original lid is attributed to the Fenton Pottery in St. Johnsbury by the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center (the museum owns additional examples of pottery from this company). The shape and glaze of this pot is similar to styles produced in Massachusetts and elsewhere in northern New England during the same period. I also included three pages from my forthcoming New Hampshire book that shows other objects owned by the museum.

Note: For more information about Warren Broderick's research into the red earthenware potteries of Vermont - see an article he wrote that was recently published by the Woodstock, Vermont History Center, titled, A Re-Evaluation Of Early Woodstock Potteries: https://www.woodstockhistorycenter.org/articles/2024/3/21/a-re-evaluation-of-early-woodstock-potteries?fbclid=IwY2xjawEcxl5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVb8F9bxlxe5Sbycf72TNqunZ2L3OhwrjqujOAKjaEJQ_0t3W9mvZhl6LA_aem_ckGRsRZm0fi3rfQLCdj5Ig.