Until recently, this late eighteenth or nineteenth century slip decorated red earthenware jar was the only object known to me like it in either a museum or private collection. It has been owned privately in a major American antiques collection for decades, which was comprised of about ten top examples of New England red earthenware, spanning manufacturers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc. However, the jar was previously owned privately in Western Massachusetts.
This jar was then published in 2023, as part of my fifth book, titled, A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area, where I speculated that it may have been manufactured in this area: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-city-on-the-river-the-early-red-earthenware-of-the-hartford-connecticut-area/.
There is a lot yet to be learned about early production in the Hartford area, which included the red earthenware potters Ebenezer Faxon (1749-1811), Seth Goodwin (1772-1828) and Nathaniel Seymour (1763-1849), among others. Nevertheless, this is an excerpt from my forthcoming two-volume, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2026/01/update-on-new-book-book-sent-to.html.
"..An interesting connection found in the Salem Village Parsonage was that Reverend Peter Clark (1693-1768), who served as the minister from 1717-1768 was the grandfather of Captain (and Deacon) Peter Clark (1743-1826) of Braintree, Massachusetts and Lyndeborough, New Hampshire. Reverend Clark was born in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1693, graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge in 1712 and was ordained as the minister of Salem Village on June 5, 1717. He then married Deborah Hobart Clark (1702-1765) in Salem on November 6, 1719, who was the daughter of Peter (1673-1751) and Deborah Hayward Hobart (1678-1759): http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/07/some-more-information-that-will-be.html.
The Clark family can be traced back to Hugh Clark (1612-1693) in Watertown, who migrated to America from London, England in 1638. He first appears in Ipswich, Massachusetts before he relocated to Watertown about 1640.
Captain Peter Clark’s parents were Peter Clark (1720-1747) and Anna Porter (Clark) (Faxon) (1722-1763); they were both born in Danvers, Massachusetts. The elder Clark was the son of Reverend Peter Clark of Salem Village. They were married in Salem, Massachusetts on October 3, 1741. They were then living in Braintree by 1743. The elder Peter Clark died in Braintree in 1747, and Anna Clark died in Braintree in 1763. Although, she remarried Thomas Faxon (1710-1801) in Braintree on September 14, 1752, where this second marriage likely influenced early red earthenware production in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Ebenezer Faxon (1749-1811) was from the Faxon family of Braintree, relocating to Hartford in 1772 in order to establish a pottery business. His role in the red earthenware industry in Hartford is largely unknown today, but he is regarded as having moved to Hartford in order to establish a red earthenware business, utilizing the rich clay in the city’s Elmwood/West Hartford section. Opportunities presented by the city’s proximity to the Connecticut River also probably contributed to his decision to relocate.
Faxon’s Massachusetts background and a potential connection to the potter Peter Clark may explain why some of the early red earthenware produced by Seth Goodwin (1772-1828) and Nathaniel Seymour (1763-1849) in West Hartford appears like it has a coastal Massachusetts influence in some of the forms.
Interestingly, Faxon’s probate inventory from 1811 in Hartford is quite extensive, although there were also claims filed on the estate of Faxon in 1812, where “Seth Goodwin” is named, as well as a “Charles Seymour...”
Nevertheless, a second jar recently emerged in an antique dealer's decades long private collection and longterm storage near the Connecticut River Valley Region in Western Massachusetts. It is unquestionably from the same manufacturer with a different type of slip decoration. This jar was then published in my two-volume, ninth book, titled, America's Great Awakening and Migration: The Red Earthenware of Western New York, since it shares some similarities in a slip technique known on a privately owned signed nineteenth century red earthenware jar made at the Lorenzo Johnson (1821-1893) Pottery in Erie County, New York, though the two jars are unrelated: https://historicbeverly.net/product/americas-great-awakening-and-migration-the-red-earthenware-of-western-new-york/.
Furthermore, the first jar discussed in this post is currently available in Massachusetts; it is one of only two examples known: https://www.aaawt.com/antique/redware-jar-highly-stylized-decoration-incised-rings-to-neck-wavy-lines/
Note: For more information about this object - contact Antiques Associates At West Townsend: https://www.aaawt.com/about/
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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