EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: From a Warehouse in Berlin, NH: The Story of a Painted Red Earthenware Vase

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

From a Warehouse in Berlin, NH: The Story of a Painted Red Earthenware Vase

While exploring New Hampshire's White Mountain region yesterday, I discovered a large, hand-thrown, hand-painted red earthenware vase in an open storage warehouse in Berlin. Although it was filled with artificial flowers, the vase itself was intriguing. While its exact history is unknown, its location suggests a background of local ownership.

In considering its origins, I initially thought of the Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts, or the John Farmer Clark (1832-1885) Pottery in Concord, New Hampshire. However, I ultimately focused on the Goodwin Brothers Pottery of West Hartford, Connecticut. This notion is supported by a group of five plates owned by the West Hartford Historical Society, which depicts 116 different painted vase forms produced between 1877 and 1885. Furthermore, the historical society archives include an early twentieth century Goodwin Brothers price list announcing their line of hand-decorated "Aztec" vases.

Interestingly, the "Aztec Vases" line, manufactured by the Goodwin Brothers Pottery Company in the Elmwood neighborhood of West Hartford, represents a fascinating intersection of late nineteenth century American art pottery and Victorian marketing strategy. Despite the exotic name, these hand-decorated pieces bear no connection to Mesoamerican or indigenous Aztec culture. Instead, American potteries of the era routinely used romanticized, historical names like "Aztec," "Egyptian," or "Etruscan" purely as a marketing gimmick. The actual shapes featured on the company's trade sheet lean heavily into classical European and Asian forms.

Additionally, the blended paint scheme on this vase transitions from brown to orange to yellow, where this may represent the "Rich Mottled Finish" advertised on the Goodwin Brothers trade sheet. By definition: A painted rich modeled finish is a painting technique where multiple tones of a color are layered to create a multi-dimensional look instead of a flat, solid color.

For more information about the Goodwin family of Connecticut - see my fifth book, A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-city-on-the-river-the-early-red-earthenware-of-the-hartford-connecticut-area/.