A few months ago, I posted a story about the discovery of a late nineteenth century painted sign from the back of a carriage found in an old nineteenth century livery building in Portland, Maine. It was the spring or early summer of 1998 when this building was opened up, retaining all sorts of original carriages and company related equipment from the 1800s; included in the building was the remains of an E. Swasey & Company stoneware carriage, as well as other related objects, now in the collection of the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/01/late-19th-century-e-swasey-co-sign.html.
Nonetheless, another type of advertising used at the Swasey Pottery in Portland sold yesterday at LeHay's Auction House in Benton, Maine. The late nineteenth or twentieth century porcelain sign reads, "Millions Of Beans Baked Every Week In Swase: Bean Pots;" a stoneware bean pot was also pictured with the company mark "E. Swasey & Co. / Portland ME." This was a type of production that was also popular with the Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts and the Moses B. Paige (1847/48-1941) Pottery in Peabody, Massachusetts.
The Eben Swasey (1843-1906) & Company pottery and glassware business operated at 273 Commercial Street in Portland from 1890 to about 1930. The company produced a wide variety of utilitarian stoneware – including pots for baking beans.
Eben had previously run the Portland Earthenware Manufactory with Rufus Lamson (1844-1928), who he apprenticed for in Exeter New Hampshire in the mid-1800s. However, in 1875, the two moved to Portland and established the Portland Earthen Ware Manufactory, producing all types of household red earthenware. After Eben's death in 1906, E. Swasey & Company was operated by his son Frederick Swasey (1869-1931 and George Young (1862-1918).
Note: For more information about stoneware made in Portland, as well as red earthenware made in Exeter and Portland - see my seventh book, titled, From One Town Came Many: The Red Earthenware Industry of Ancient North Yarmouth Maine: https://historicbeverly.net/product/94597/.
Circa 1890-1930 E. Swasey & Company Porcelain Advertising Sign
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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