North Carolina "swirlware" pottery is a decorative style from the Catawba Valley (and other parts of North Carolina) featuring a "cream and chocolate" or multi-colored swirled pattern usually created by combining contrasting clays on the pottery wheel. This "fancy ware" emerged around the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, as potters shifted from functional, utilitarian wares to decorative, tourist-oriented pieces.
However, this type of swirled affect was also produced at the Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts, as early as the mid-1860s. But contrasting clays were not used and instead the Beverly wares were manufactured with the use of slip decoration.
Furthermore, I have suspected for five to ten years now that some of these wares produced in Beverly may have been created around the centennial in 1876 and the glaze may have been inspired after red earthenware made in Philadelphia in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. These later Essex County potteries in neighboring Beverly and Peabody, Massachusetts were very much aware of early red earthenware production in parts of New England and America, as well as the revival of ancient design, especially in the Boston area.
This is some information that will be included in my forthcoming two-volume, 1,100-1,300 page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers, Peabody and Salem, Massachusetts: "...It was published in Volume I of this book that some potters in Massachusetts seem to have been inspired by some of the production in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century. This includes Joseph Wilson from the Wilson family of Danvers, Massachusetts (see Chapter 7 in Volume I of this for more information), who advertised in the June 22, 1767, issue of the Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury: "Joseph Wilson - potter at the North End of Providence Informs the Public that he can Supply them with Earthen Ware at a Cheap Rate, made in the best Manner and Glazed in the Same Way as Practised in Philadelphia - All Persons in this Town may be regularly supplied by Means of the Boats which constantly pass between this Place and Providence."
Interestingly, there are similarities with some of the glazes produced at the Charles A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts after 1865, in comparison to some of the red earthenware produced in Philadelphia in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. This comparison includes the use of slip decorated lines combined with spots of green decoration.The plate and four bowls shown below from Philadelphia with this type of design were recovered from a circa 1790-1820 brick-lined privy at 606 Hancock Street in Philadelphia. This type of production was also shipped to various locations along the American eastern seaboard, including New York City, Baltimore, New Jersey and Delaware, among other coastal cities and towns.
In theory, the Philadelphia style decoration manufactured in Beverly may have also been a centennial style that coincided with the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876..."
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