As excited as I am about my forthcoming tenth book—a two-volume, 1,900+ page work, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts—I am equally thrilled about my eleventh book project. Currently a work in progress with a group of researchers, this upcoming 600-700 page installment is titled A Monumental History: Stories of Red Earthenware Production in Western Massachusetts, the Berkshires and Vermont.
Thanks in large part to the tireless research of Warren Broderick, this next book will present a wealth of incredible new information on Vermont's red earthenware industry. It will reintroduce some long-lost potting operations while significantly expanding upon past scholarship.
For instance, the large jar shown below is an outstanding nineteenth century example of this regional craftsmanship, likely produced in Addison County, Vermont.
The first document featured below is one of the many historic deeds analyzed in the book. Dated April 14, 1830, this handwritten quitclaim deed records a property sale in Middlebury, Vermont, where grantors Rufus (1786-1853) and Jonathan Wainwright (1786-1845) transferred a specific parcel of land to Edward W. Farrar (1808-1845) for ten dollars. Crucially, the property’s boundary description references an active pottery shop alongside other local landmarks, such as a creek, a lot purchased from Frederick Hall (1780-1843), and a "Potter's Lot" connected to Middlebury College. The transaction was witnessed by Edward D. Barber and Harvey Bell, verified by Bell as Justice of the Peace, and recorded into the town ledger on November 1, 1830, by town clerk Seth Storrs.
The second document is a handwritten legal agreement detailing a property mortgage between Bowen Brewster (1773-1845) and William Brewster (1765-1831) of Weybridge. In exchange for seven hundred and fifty dollars, Bowen mortgaged two specific parcels of land in Middlebury. The first tract comprises roughly four acres on the west side of the highway leading to Weybridge, originally acquired from Harvey Bell in March 1814. The second piece sits on the east side of that same highway and is home to Bowen’s earthenware factory, a property previously deeded to him by Albert Wilson.
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