This is an early red earthenware object that I have known about for sometime now, which has been owned for years privately in New England. Among those owners was Lew Scranton of Killingworth, Connecticut. It was also previously found decades ago by Scott Tyson in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The shape of this likely eighteenth century green glazed red earthenware mug is a classic "tankard" style design that was incredibly popular in eighteenth century England. Before this time, most drinking mugs were more rounded or "belly-shaped," but by the early-to-mid 1700s, English potters in production centers like Bristol, London and Staffordshire, etc. shifted to this straight-sided look.
This is possibly a Massachusetts potter's adaptation of this type of form, where this shape of large straight-sided mug has been recovered from various archaeological contexts in eastern Massachusetts, such as locally produced wares found at site of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, Massachusetts and the circa 1764-1799 Daniel Bayley (1729-1792) Pottery Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
The Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, originated in 1629 as the "Great House," the initial seat of government for the Massachusetts Bay Colony and home to Governor John Winthrop (1588-1649). After the colonial leadership relocated to Boston in 1630, the property was purchased in 1635 by Robert Long (1590-1663), who converted it into a tavern and named it after a well-known London establishment. For the next 140 years, it remained a prominent social and political landmark, staying within the Long family for generations and evolving into a sophisticated hub for wealthy merchants, travelers, and eventually, American Patriots.
The tavern's long history came to a violent end during the Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1775, during the Battle of Bunker Hill, British forces set fire to Charlestown to displace rebel snipers, completely leveling the Three Cranes Tavern. The site lay buried and largely forgotten until the "Big Dig" archaeological excavations in the 1980s. Often referred to as "Boston's Pompeii," these digs uncovered the tavern's original foundations and a wealth of artifacts, such as locally produced red earthenware.
However, this shape of mug was also produced elsewhere in America in the eighteenth century, which included Philadelphia. In fact, some Philadelphia potters were also manufacturing other British styles, including Staffordshire-type slip decorated red earthenware before the American Revolution. This shape of red earthenware mug is also known from Baltimore after 1763.
Furthermore, there was also a colonial potter named Joseph Wilson in Providence, Rhode Island, who came from the Wilson family of Quaker potters in Danvers/Salem, Massachusetts; he advertised in 1767 that he was producing wares similar to types produced in Philadelphia, which may have included green glazed red earthenware (see January 1931 issue of The Magazine Antiques; Early Rhode Island Pottery).
Note: For reference - published in Massachusetts author Lura Woodside Watkins' (1897-1982) book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares is a red earthenware pitcher similar in shape to some stoneware jugs produced in Westerwald, Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Nonetheless, this pitcher was purportedly made in Gloucester, Massachusetts during the circa 1635-1690 period. This object will also be included in 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.
An Early Straight-Sided Green Glazed Red Earthenware Mug
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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