Potter’s Proof: Solving the Mystery of a 19th-Century New England Red Earthenware Jar

Another branch of the Bradford family pottery business was established on Cape Cod in 1819, when Noah Bradford Jr. (1761-1841) relocated from Kingston to Barnstable, Massachusetts, to expand the family's regional reach. After acquiring the site from Prince Nye (1781-1850), he operated the pottery there from 1819 to 1830. Fascinatingly, archaeological evidence from this enterprise survives today, having been salvaged in the twentieth century by Brian Cullity, the former curator at Heritage Museums & Gardens (formerly the Sandwich Museum).

Only a small group of these jars are known today, which feature a highly distinct construction detail: somewhat pressed curved handles finished with bold, deep finger impressions pressed into the clay at each terminal. This specific stylistic and structural treatment is exceptionally rare, separating this work from other known New England red earthenware manufacturers of the period.

Intriguingly, several different shaped jars with this same type of handle appear to have been originally owned by Samuel Wing (1774–1854), who established himself as a prominent rural cabinetmaker in neighboring Sandwich during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These jars may suggest a direct trade relationship between the Bradford pottery in Barnstable and Wing's homestead in Sandwich. These specific pieces owned by Wing are now preserved as part of the permanent collection at Old Sturbridge Village.

In contrast, another jar from the New England region has remained somewhat of an origin mystery. Previously held in the collection of Stephen Corrigan in Vermont before passing to Brian Cullity on Cape Cod, early provenance indicators suggested a possible Vermont origin. However, a closer inspection reveals that it closely mirrors the handled jar featured in yesterday’s post in near-exact form (also shown below)—minus the handles themselves. Because those distinctive handles so closely resemble the known stylistic types produced by the Bradford family on Cape Cod, it is possible that this mystery jar was also a product of the Bradford family, manufactured at either their Kingston or Barnstable operations.

Nonetheless, both of these objects will be included in a chapter about the Bradford family and the archaeology of the Samuel Bell House in Peabody in my upcoming tenth book—a comprehensive, 1,900-page, two-volume study titled An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts.  

For more information -  see a five-page feature story I wrote for the May 2019 issue of Maine Antique Digest, titled “The Bradford Family Potteries in Massachusetts.” This information was then published again in my fifth book, A Celebrated Industry: The Historic Wares of Southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County and Cape Cod: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-celebrated-industry-the-historic-wares-of-southeastern-massachusetts-bristol-county-and-cape-cod/. 

Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Jar from New England

Retains Some History of Ownership in Vermont

Perhaps Related to the Jar Shown Below

This Type of Glaze is also Known from the Hews Pottery of Weston, Mass.

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Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Jar

Possibly Related to the Bradford Family's Red Earthenware Production

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Photo Courtesy: Private Collection

These Jars Were Owned by Samuel Wing in Sandwich, Mass.

Likely Made at the Bradford Pottery in Barnstable, Mass.

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Photo Courtesy: Old Sturbridge Village

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