I took my dog for a hike yesterday, and on our way back, we came across this eighteenth or early nineteenth century red earthenware porringer that is partially glazed green. I was told it was found many years ago in Winchester, Massachusetts, which is where the great circa 1720-1750 slip decorated red earthenware lidded bowl pictured on the cover of my Charlestown, Massachusetts book was found, titled, The Dawn of Independence, the Death of An Industry: The Pottery of Charlestown, Massachusetts: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-dawn-of-independence-the-death-of-an-industry/.
The bowl was discovered in an old home in Winchester in 1976, although its origin was a left a mystery until it was properly identified on this website in October 2014: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2014/10/a-lidded-double-handled-red-earthenware.html.
The bowl was actually the first piece of pre-1775 Charlestown red earthenware properly identified since the 1800s by using archaeological evidence collected as part of Boston's Big Dig Project in the 1980s, now kept at the City of Boston Archaeology Program in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. A few other pieces have been identified since then, although the bowl remains in my opinion the most historically significant example of surviving red earthenware known from New England today. The bowl then sold in November of 2014, and resides in a prominent private collection today: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2014/11/a-recap-of-tim-goulds-sale-in-gardiner.html.
However, perhaps the second most historically significant example of red earthenware known from New England today is an eighteenth or early nineteenth century red earthenware jar from Bristol County, Massachusetts adorned with a Quaker hat as a finial on the lid. This jar was discussed in the fifth installment of my pottery book series, titled, A Celebrated Industry: The Historic Wares of Southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County and Cape Cod, although it will be a focus of the tenth installment that I'm working on now, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers and Peabody, Massachusetts: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/announcement-tenth-book-early-industry.html.
Nevertheless, Winchester is located about five-miles from where the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place in 1776, which followed the Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown on June 17, 1775; this year also marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill
Furthermore, one of the larger collections of early porringers made in Massachusetts is owned by Historic New England at Cogswell’s Grant in Essex, Massachusetts. It is a rather rare form to come across today from a Massachusetts manufacturer, whereas I suspect this one was also made somewhere along coastal Massachusetts.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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