Even though there was no local stoneware production in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, my forthcoming two-volume,1,660-page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts, will include some very interesting archaeological artifacts and other examples of American and German stoneware owned in eighteenth and nineteenth century contexts in the Danvers, Peabody and Salem, Massachusetts area. The book is due out in the winter of 2026.
For example, one very interesting comparison that I came across is an unmarked nineteenth century stoneware crock owned by Historic New England adorned with a cobalt decorated bird, which retains an original context of family ownership in Salem. This crock matches other examples impressed with the name of a merchant in Lynn, Massachusetts. There are also a number of examples of early Charlestown stoneware recovered from archaeological contexts in the area that will be illustrated in the book.
However, an important piece of the area's stoneware history is partly a result of Joseph Reed (1809-1884), who acquired the old Osborn Pottery in Peabody in the 1850s, but he was listed as a “retired potter” in the 1870 United States Federal Census in Peabody. It was about this time that he had leased the business to Rufus Lamson (1844-1928) of Exeter, New Hampshire and later Charles F. Worthen (1852-1930), a businessman born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. There is some stoneware today that bear’s Worthen’s name, although he ordered the pottery from another American manufacturer.
Interestingly, the Exeter Historical Society owns a crock marked "F.H. LAMSON / EXETER, N.H.," which is decorated with similar birds in cobalt that are known from some of the stoneware impressed with Worthen's name. This likely indicates the two businesses were using the same manufacturer to order stoneware in wholesale amounts; the Moses Paige Pottery, which followed Worthen's company in Peabody, operated in a similar style in the late nineteenth and twentieth century, using a comparable business model selling a variety of goods purchased in wholesale amounts from other American manufacturers, as well as locally produced red earthenware.
Note: There will be more information included in the forthcoming book about the Lamson Pottery in Exeter and the company's involvement in the Salem area.
In the meantime - see my second published book, 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/.
A Preview of Forthcoming Two-Volume, Tenth Book
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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