I have had a number of questions about ordering books for Christmas. Here is a link for more information about ordering each book title in my pottery book series: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/11/christmas-idea-here-are-links-to-each.html.
F.Y.I. -- Book number ten should be out this winter; Volume I is 583 pages, Volume II is 807 pages.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
This is a type of production that will be included in my forthcoming two-volume, nearly 1,400-page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers, Peabody and Salem, Massachusetts. For anyone anticipating the book - it is finished so I am hoping that it will be out sometime this winter.
To my knowledge, there are three jars of this type known to exist today, two that are privately owned and a third owned by Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts. These jars are a typical storage jar, although the potter added an artistic appeal to this jar by placing sets of four brush strokes (or stripes) of manganese to different sides of the jar. There are also groups of straight and wavy incised lines applied along the rim and below it. The other existing jars are decorated in a similar manner, although with different styles. All of the jars were also manufactured with a lid, but none of the lids have remained with the objects (or survived).
This type of production is the subject of Chapter 19 in Volume II of the book, titled, "A Practical Decorated Type of Red Earthenware Jar," where this type of production is also compared in the chapter to David Mandevilles' (1776-1859) red earthenware production in Circleville, New York, as well as the striped stoneware jars made in Western Pennsylvania in the 1800s.
Interestingly, the manufacture of these types of jars is not as refined, although the style of the decoration is comparable to another small group of jars that are known (all of which are also illustrated in Chapter 19), two are privately owned in New England, while a third example sold through Crocker Farm in Maryland in October 2019: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2019-10-26/lot-65/Rare-and-Important-Slip-Decorated-New-England-Redware-Jar-with-Lid/.
Note: For more information - see an article posted to this website earlier this year, titled, Some More Information About a Red Earthenware Jar Recently Found in an Old Estate on Beacon Hill in Boston: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/04/some-more-information-about-red.html.
A Rare Type of Red Earthenware Production from the Danvers and Salem, Mass. Area
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
My latest feature story is published on page 10 in the current December 12, 2025 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, The Southwick Family Of Potters Of Salem & South Danvers, Mass.
Here is a link to a PDF of the story: https://www.scribd.com/document/960901137/1212-D-010-ANA-Southwick
New Published Feature Story in Antiques And The Arts Weekly
This is a great artifact that will be published in the 500-600 page eleventh book I'm working on now with New York historian Warren Broderick, among others, titled, A Monumental History: Stories of Red Earthenware Production in Western Massachusetts, the Berkshires and Vermont.
This nineteenth century black glazed red earthenware teapot and lid was excavated in the 1980s at the Ozias Atherton (1788-1831) site along Route 2 in Moretown, Washington County, Vermont. The early homestead was built in 1810 and destroyed by a flood in 1837. The teapot was likely made at the Thomas Crafts Pottery in Whately, Massachusetts, circa 1820s.
It is not everyday that a good example of sgraffito decorated red earthenware from southeastern Pennsylvania becomes available, seeing that most examples are owned by museums, institutions and major private collections. However, this is a good example that I just learned about, which is currently available to purchase in Massachusetts.
This circa 1815 sgraffito decorated red earthenware plate is unsigned, although the decorative technique is similar to some styles produced by Henry Roudebush or Roudebuth (circa 1792-1838) in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, among other Pennsylvania-German potters, working in southeastern Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The plate is covered in a yellow slip with a sgraffito decorated flowering plant potted in an urn; the sgraffito decoration and other areas of the plate are also highlighted with a vibrant green glaze.
There are comparable plates representing the work of various potters, including Roudebush, owned by the Philadelphia Art Museum with flowers and urns being a popular type of design. This type of urn and flower sgraffito decoration was also manufactured by Samuel Troxel, Heinrich Roth, Abraham Hubener, George Hubener, Conrad Mumbouer and John Leidy, among other potters in southeastern Pennsylvania. Some of the sgraffito designs are unmistakable for the work of a certain potter, while other designs are not as easy to identify.
Aside from the sgraffito decorated red earthenware plate that I posted about today, there is also a great selection of late eighteenth and nineteenth century American stoneware available at Antiques Associates At West Townsend in Massachusetts. The selection spans pottery manufacturers located throughout New York State, elsewhere in the American Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Midwest.
My favorite objects are the early examples manufactured in New York City and the Albany, New York area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Here are some articles that I posted earlier this year about some of these objects --
1) Four Good Examples of 19th Century Stoneware Adorned with Cobalt Decorated Birds from Upstate New York: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/four-good-examples-of-19th-century.html
2) Three Good One-Of-A-Kind Type Examples of Albany Type Glazed Stoneware with Inscriptions from Ohio: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/three-good-one-of-kind-type-examples-of.html
3) Two 19th Century Stoneware Ring Bottles with Similar Circular or Dotted Graduated Designs: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/two-19th-century-stoneware-ring-flasks.html
4) 19th Century Stoneware Production with Silhouetted Designs Manufactured in Different Locations in America, Including in North Bay, Oneida County, New York, Circa 1851-1876: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/19th-century-stoneware-production-with.html
5) A Pair of Circa 1830 Stoneware Jars from Baltimore Made for Thomas Smith's Airville Plantation in Gloucester, Virginia: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/a-pair-of-circa-1830-stoneware-jars.html
6) The Opening of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832 and Some 19th Century Stoneware Production in Ohio: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/the-opening-ohio-and-erie-canal-in-1832.html
7) Two Good Early 19th Century Stoneware Jars from the Albany and Troy, New York Area: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/two-very-good-early-19th-century.html
8) A Very Good Late 18th or Early 19th Century Stoneware Jug Decorated with an Inscribed Perched Bird Highlighted with Cobalt: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/03/a-very-good-late-18th-or-early-19th.html
9) A Significant Early 19th Century Stoneware Jug from New York City Possibly Made by John Morgan Before He Left for Rockbridge County, Virginia: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/03/a-significant-early-19th-century.html
10) A Late 18th or Early 19th Century Stoneware Jug Likely from New York City and the Remains of a Stoneware Jug Recovered in Manhattan's Seaport: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/04/a-late-18th-or-early-19th-century.html
11) A Very Good Late 18th or Early 19th Century Stoneware Jug Likely from Manhattan with an Incised Flower Highlighted by Cobalt: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/04/a-very-good-late-18th-or-early-19th.html
12) A Late 18th or Early 19th Century Stoneware Jug with Incised Floral Motif Possibly from Manhattan: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/04/a-late-18th-or-early-19th-century_4.html
13) A 19th Century Stoneware Presentation Mug Possibly from Philadelphia the was Made for a Men's Social Club in Jamestown, Rhode Island: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/01/a-19th-century-stoneware-presentation.html
14) A Significant Example of Stoneware Production from Sherburne, New York: One of Two Flasks Known from Delos Rogers: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/02/a-significant-example-of-stoneware.html
Note: For more information about any of these objects - contact Antiques Associates At West Townsend: https://www.aaawt.com/about/.
Some Very Good Late 18th and 19th Century Stoneware
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
A good example of a two-gallon nineteenth century stoneware crock decorated with a man-in-the-moon motif in cobalt and stamped "Cowden & Wilcox / Harrisburg," sold last week at Rowe's Auction Service in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The decoration features a brushed cobalt blue design of a man's face within a crescent-shaped, leaf-like motif, and is considered a signature design on stoneware from central Pennsylvania.
For a brief history about this business: John Wallace Cowden (1817-1872) and Isaac Wilcox (1831-1906) initially established and ran this pottery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, although the company was also known as C.W. Pottery. The factory was a ceramic manufacturing company that was established in 1861, after Harrisburg was incorporated as a city on March 19, 1860, whereas the factory produced pottery until about 1923. This business mostly produced stoneware, but they also made some red earthenware, where production from this company was distributed locally, but it was also marketed in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Nonetheless, this crock sold for $7,200 plus the buyer's premium; the sale also featured a few good pieces of nineteenth century red earthenware from Pennsylvania and New York State, which included a jug possibly made in Adams County, Pennsylvania that brought $450 plus the buyer's premium.
For reference: it appears the auction record for a Cowden & Wilcox man-in-the-moon decoration is a circa 1865 batter pail that sold at Crocker Farm in Maryland in 2023 for $54,000 including the buyer's premium: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2023-03-31/lot-21/Exceedingly-Rare-and-Important-COWDEN-WILCOX-HARRISBURG-PA-Triple-Man-in-the-Moon-Batter-Pail/.
Note: For more information about red earthenware made in Adams County - see a feature story I wrote that was published on pages 5, 6 and 7 in the July 11, 2025 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, Miller Red Earthenware: A History Of The Family's Production In Adams County, Pa. - http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/07/new-published-feature-story-in-antiques.html.
19th Century Man-in-the-Moon Stoneware Crock
