Centuries ago, Castine, Hancock County, Maine, a coastal community located to the west of Acadia National Park, was a strategic stronghold for several European powers in the 1600s and part of the 1700s, such as the British, Dutch and French. The earliest permanent settlement began in the 1760s, with the town becoming an area of maritime trade and shipbuilding in the nineteenth century. By 1850, Castine had grown to be one of the wealthiest locations in America.
Back in 2018, I posted a story to this website about a number of nineteenth century red earthenware sherds that were recovered in Brooksville, Hancock County, Maine, another coastal community located a short distance from Castine. These sherds appear to have come from a local potter's business, although there is no documented production in Hancock County, Maine in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
However, in consideration of the wealth that was in this part of Maine in the 1800s, then I suspect there may have been a red earthenware business, although it has not been written about in any previous twentieth century publication, including Manlif Lelyn Branin's book, The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine.
Branin did note a potter named George Washington Bruce (b. 1779), who worked at the industry in North Yarmouth, Maine and perhaps Portland, Maine before 1810, but he also stated that Bruce was a stoneware manufacturer. No stoneware was made at the industry in North Yarmouth or Portland during this early period. The area's earliest stoneware production seems to have been with the Martin Crafts (1807-1880) Pottery in Portland in the 1830s.
Branin also stated that Bruce was likely trained at a red earthenware business owned by Ebenezer Corliss (1764-1853) in North Yarmouth, who was the uncle of John Corliss (1799-1892), the red earthenware potter from Days Ferry, Woolwich, Maine. Branin then goes on to question whether there was any truth to Bruce being a stoneware potter and says he moved to "Belfast, Hancock County, Maine," where he operated a red earthenware business after 1820. However, Belfast is actually located in Waldo County, Maine.
Nonetheless, this was some of the little information published in the twentieth century that seems to reference red earthenware production in Hancock County, which I suspect did happen on a bigger scale, although it has been overlooked in publication. Hancock County was also formed on April 1, 1820, several weeks after Maine became an independent state.
Additionally, this is how the site was described to me back in 2018: "I've returned for the third year in a row to the Old Mill Pond area of Smith's Cove and continue to find significant quantities of red earthenware sherds near the shoreline. I think it is safe to say that I have stumbled upon a previously unknown potter's site in Maine. It seems the pottery was located near a dam as this is where the vast majority of the sherds were found. Water power may have even been used here.
You can get pretty close to the site by ship, but the town road is a long uphill walk and no evidence exists that I can see of any other road.Interestingly, some of the sherds are decorated with slip, a characteristic rarely found on Maine red earthenware. But besides the black and brown glazes, there are a couple of attractive swirly greens, a real nice beige with black spots and a red glaze also with black dots.
Many of the sherds are heavily potted, but a few are surprisingly thin. There are also a number of sherds that exhibit no glaze, whatsoever. Overall, I must have collected ten to twenty pounds of red earthenware sherds so far and I imagine more will wash out as clam diggers and the tide uncovers them."
Shown below is a nineteenth century red earthenware jug from Maine that may have originated at this site in the Brooksville area; the rough texture of the surface and the glaze colors are basically an exact match to multiple sherds recovered at the Brooksville site.
A Possible 19th C. Red Earthenware Business in Brooksville, Maine
