This is another preview of my forthcoming two-volume, 1,900+ page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts.
While researching this book, I felt it was essential to include this slip decorated red earthenware jar, which was found with its original lid decades ago in coastal Massachusetts. Here is that story.
"...Although discovered decades ago in coastal Massachusetts by author Lura Woodside Watkins, this object (shown to the left) was never published in Early New England Potters and Their Wares. At the time, Watkins may have lacked the context to identify it, given the absence of archaeological evidence from pre-1775 industries like Charlestown, Massachusetts and perhaps production in the Danvers and Salem, Massachusetts area.
However, the craftsmanship may link the piece directly to that era, perhaps made in Charlestown or Essex County, Massachusetts. The slip decorated finial on the lid uses the exact same technique seen on an eighteenth century, double-handled red earthenware pot from Charlestown (shown to the right), illustrated in Figures 8.28a-8.28d.
The presence of this distinctive slip decoration strongly supports a connection to the Boston area and North Shore regional traditions. While historical records indicate that Charlestown served as the commercial epicenter of eighteenth century New England red earthenware production—boasting dozens of active potters before the town was incinerated during the Revolutionary War—neighboring Essex County workshops frequently shared styles, materials, and specialized techniques. Because these coastal communities regularly exchanged apprentices and raw resources, distinguishing a specific workshop without clear kiln-site evidence requires a comparative analysis of the few surviving objects from this period.
Furthermore, the object's discovery in a coastal Massachusetts region highlights the vital maritime trade routes that distributed domestic red earthenware throughout the Atlantic seaboard. Throughout the colonial era, New England merchant boats routinely bartered regional red earthenware along the coast, carrying utilitarian goods from busy local hubs to outlying maritime settlements. If this piece was indeed manufactured by a pre-Revolutionary Charlestown or Essex County potter, its survival offers a rare, intact benchmark for a highly sophisticated aesthetic style that was previously thought to exist only in fragmented archaeological records and potters located elsewhere in America."
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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