This is a very neat find yesterday at a thrift store in Danvers, Massachusetts; I have been going to this store about once a month or so for the past year, in hopes that I may find an example of red earthenware made at one of the local potteries in Beverly or Peabody, Massachusetts.
I believe this large hand-thrown red earthenware flowerpot was made at the Moses Paige (ca. 1847/48-1941) Pottery in Peabody during the circa 1870s-1930s period. In fact, this is a type of flowerpot made by Guy Wolffe in Bantam, Connecticut, which he calls the "Peabody Pot," and among the customers that he has had for this type of flowerpot through the years was Steve Jobs (1955-2011), the founder of Apple Computers.
The flowerpots made at the M.B. Paige Pottery have been recovered from numerous late nineteenth and early twentieth century archaeological contexts in the Boston area. One of those Boston area customers was Isabella Stewart Gardner (1820-1924), who used the flowerpots in Fenway Court in the early 1900s for shrubs and small trees, where most of the pots were produced with handles, but not all of them.
Gardern's mother-in-law's greenhouse in Boston was also filled with flowerpots made at the M.B. Paige Pottery in the early 1900s; she had to have owned dozens of them, based on a photograph owned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Interestingly, I found one of the flowerpots made with handles more than a decade ago at a flea market in Rowley, Massachusetts, and I compared it to the one that I found yesterday: the throwing styles are the same, the bases are the same and they are basically the same height, although there were a number of potters employed at the Paige Pottery, so there will be subtle differences, as well
Furthermore, the flowerpot that I found at the flea market was actually discovered in an old barn in New Hampshire, whereas I note in my recently published eighth book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses, that red earthenware made at the Paige Pottery was regularly shipped to New Hampshire (and Maine), among other locations: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/.
Additionally, the base of the flowerpot that I found yesterday was cut from the potter's wheel with a wire or a string, and this is a technique seen with other objects produced in Peabody, such as chicken waterers and feeders.
Another notable context of ownership for the Peabody flowerpots is the Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts; the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. also owns a Peabody flowerpot with an attached saucer, although there are also a number of other museums.
These types of Peabody flowerpots were also displayed as part of a botanical exhibit at Smith College in western Massachusetts, titled, A Place To Take Root: https://www.smith.edu/garden/pastexhibits/flowerpots/potpage1.html.
Nevertheless, for more information about the M.B. Paige Pottery - see the second installment of my pottery book series, titled, The Moses B. Paige Company: The Last of the Peabody Potteries: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-moses-b-paige-company-the-last-of-the-peabody-potteries/.
Note: The M.B. Paige Pottery operated a retail business in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which helped cater to the Boston market in the 1900s. But their production was also shipped all over the United States.
Red Earthenware Flowerpot Likely Made at the Paige Pottery in Peabody, Mass.
Courtesy: Peabody, Mass. Historical Society
Courtesy: Peabody, Mass. Historical Society
Courtesy: Peabody, Mass. Historical Society
Courtesy: Peabody, Mass. Historical Society
Courtesy: Peabody, Mass. Historical Society
2 comments:
Great find and article
thank you!
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