I arrived at Dish Camp in Easfield Village, New York around 7:30am last Friday. It was about a three-hour ride from my home in Newburyport, Massachusetts. I got their early so could I drop off a little more than a dozen examples of Charles A. Lawrence Pottery made in Beverly, Massachusetts for display. I wanted to do it before anyone else got there. I also included a bag full of shards for this exhibit.
After I unpacked everything and brought it into the church where the three-day conference is held - I quickly left to explore the area in my rental Toyota Prius - and I also wanted to check into my hotel room in Rensselaer, New York. Only a matter of a few miles from Eastfield Village - I came across an antique shop that was surprisingly open at eight-o'clock in the morning. A small collection of locally made stoneware caught my eye in front of the shop. I couldn't resist - so I made a U turn at a gas station and I stopped. There must have been 100 to 200 examples of stoneware in this shop - many of which were locally made in upstate New York. A handle-less ovoid stoneware jug made by the nineteenth-century potter, Paul Cushman really caught my eye above all the other pieces. It was decorated with a large incised tulip that covered much of the front of the jug - and Cushman's full name was also drawn across the front. I asked how much it was - and I wasn't surprised when the shop owner told me it was, "
$12,000." The walls of this shop were lined with stoneware crocks and jugs in a variety of makers, forms, sizes and prices.
I hung out at the shop for probably a half hour and talked early American pottery with the shop owner. He told me about stoneware and I answered questions about red earthenware.
The Antique Shop I Came Across in Nassau, NY at 8:00am on Friday June 27th
As I continued to look around the store, I saw many examples of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania-made red earthenware - and a colorful lidded jar probably made by the Clark family of potters in either Lyndenboro or Concord, New Hampshire in the nineteenth-century. I have seen similar lidded jars sold at Skinner, Inc. in Boston recently and also in private New Hampshire collections. This jar was as nice of an example as any of the others that I have seen. I also saw a few large examples of Canadian and North Carolina red earthenware. The North Carolina examples were from the twentieth-century.
In the center of the store was a collection of black glazed wares that were made throughout the mid-Atlantic and northeast states. A jar in this collection really stood out to me that wasn't in the best of condition, but it appeared to be a rare survivor from an era that rarely exists today. The jar was cracked at the base with a small rounded foot - it was thickly potted with a dark exterior glaze that showed impurities. The interior was glazed in a green glaze that also showed impurities. The dark exterior and colorful interior glazes were used by potters throughout central and western New Hampshire (especially the Concord and Chesham areas) in the nineteenth-century; however most of those pots and crocks were more thinly potted, while this jar was thickly potted - similar to many of the eighteenth-century shards that I have examined from coastal Massachusetts potters. The shop owner told me he purchased it from a Connecticut antiques dealer who regularly deals in New England-made red earthenware. He told me the jar was found in Massachusetts.
An Important Note to Consider:
The exact form of this jar was also used by William Pecker in Merrimacport, Massachusetts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries. Pecker's business was only a few miles away from the Bayley Pottery Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts. There could be a relationship or influence into why Pecker used such a form. That's a very-good possibility. I don't recall ever seeing this form attributed to any of the New Hampshire potters before.
Click on this
link to see the William Pecker jar I am referring to on page 38 of the report I wrote for the October 2013 edition of the New England Antiques Journal.
Red Earthenware Jar Found in Nassau, NY
It Has a Dark Glazed Exterior with a Colorful Glazed Interior
Height: 7 1/4" Tall
Diameter at Top: 4" Across
Diameter at Base: 4 3/4" Across
Ca. Late 18th Century, Possibly Early 19th Century
Interior is Glazed with a Greenish Colored Glaze with Impurities
Another Angle of the Interior Glaze
The interior glaze is actually very-similar to shards collected by Lura Woodside Watkins in the 1930s at the site of the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company (Ca. 1764-1799) in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Those shards are now kept at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Take a look at the interior glaze of the mug shards (Watkins collection) in the first photo below. It is very similar to the interior glaze of the jar above. The photos following the mug shards show more glazes from the Bayley Pottery Company that can relate to the colors seen on the jar above.
Daniel Bayley Red Earthenware Mug Shards - Newburyport, Ma
Lura Woodside Watkins Collection
This Mug Has a Similar Interior Glaze as the Jar Above
Ca. 1764-1799
Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian - Washington, D.C.
Daniel Bayley Pottery Co. Red Earthenware Shards - Newburyport, Ma
Lura Woodside Watkins Collection
Notice the Greenish Glaze to Right and Towards the Bottom
Ca. 1764-1799
Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian - Washington, D.C.
Daniel Bayley Pottery Co. Slip Decorated Shards - Newburyport, Ma
Lura Woodside Watkins Collection
The Glaze Color is Similar to the Interior Glaze Seen on the Jar Above
Ca. 1764-1799
Photo Courtesy: The National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian - Washington, D.C.
Here are some of the New Hampshire glazes I reference; however I feel these products are all more thinly potted than the jar of discussion. What I perceive to be New Hampshire products (that can relate in color to the jar above) as those that display a dark exterior and a light interior glaze - are wares that were more thinly potted. The jar of discussion (seen above) is heavy with thickly potted walls like many of the shards seen in Newburyport and elsewhere in eighteenth-century coastal Massachusetts (as I have previously indicated).
Jeremiah Burpee Red Earthenware Mug - Boscowan, NH
Ca. 1804-1830
Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH
Concord, NH Red Earthenware Pitcher
Ca. Early to Mid 19th Century
Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH
New Hampshire-Made Barrel-Formed Red Earthenware Mug
Ca. Early to Mid 19th Century
Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH
New Hampshire-Made Red Earthenware Shaving Mug
Ca. Early to Mid 19th Century
Photo Courtesy: The New Hampshire Historical Society - Concord, NH
The colonial potters of Charlestown, Massachusetts are also known to have used a glaze style like this (contrasting dark exterior and colorful interior glazes); although I am not sure many of these type glazed products have survived since they all predate June 17, 1775 - when English soldiers leveled the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts and basically all of its potter's industry. There are some products that have survived today that are believed to have been made in Charlestown; however nothing with this exact glaze that I have seen.
Some Charlestown potters rebuilt after the Battle of Bunker Hill, but most did not return.
I have shown a possible surviving Charlestown example below that was purchased from a longtime Vermont collection of New England-made red earthenware in March of 2013. It has a metallic dark glaze on the exterior with a colorful interior glaze that matches a handful of shards found in the Town Dock area of Charlestown. The shards were collected as part of the Big Dig archaeology that happened in the 1980s.
Shards of a Charlestown, Ma Red Earthenware Chamber Pot
Shows a Dark Exterior and Colorful Interior Glaze
Ca. 1750-1775
Found in the Maudlin Street Archaeological District in Charlestown as part of the Big Dig
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Dept. - West Roxbury, Ma
(Left) Charlestown, Ma Red Earthenware Shard
Found in the Town Dock Archaelogical District of Charlestown During the Big Dig
Ca. 1760-1775
(Right) Probably a Surviving Example of 18th Century Charlestown, Ma Red Earthenware
Ca. 1760-1790
Purchased from a Vermont Collection in 2013
Height: 7 1/4" Tall
Width: 9 1/2" at Widest Point (Center)
Diameter at Top: 7 1/2" Wide
Diameter at Base: 5 3/4" Wide
I am not necessarily positive that the jar I purchased in Nassau, New York was made at the Bayley Pottery Company in Newburyport; although it does share strong characteristics with some of the shards collected from that company by Lura Woodside Watkins. Shards collected across the street from the Bayley Pottery at Ebenezer Morrison's business are also similar. The clay source was likely the same - and both companies operated in the same period.
Do I feel the jar I found is eighteenth-century? Yes, I do; however the jar could have been made at any number of businesses that produced red earthenware all-over Essex County during this period. Most of these businesses would have used a similar clay source with related impurities (that are seen in the final glaze) and the styles could have also been similar with potters influencing each other with their utilitarian approach in the way they manufactured wares. It's difficult to know for sure, but above is my case as to why this jar could have been made in Newburyport before 1800. I think the fact that William Pecker made a similar form and shards from the Bayley site closely match the interior glaze to the jar seen above makes for a very-good case for a Newburyport-area potter.
I am going to show some colorful glazes from William Pecker in my next report. For all I know - some of you may feel this jar was made by Pecker after seeing the glazes that were collected near Pecker's home and place of operation a few days ago - I however, feel the jar is related to Newburyport.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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