Earlier this year, a friend purchased a group lot of red earthenware at Sotheby's in New York City, which included a mottled green and black glazed red earthenware jar: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/americana/a-group-of-three-american-redware-vessels-19th.
This is a type of production that has sometimes been attributed to New England through the years mainly because of the glaze, although I feel this type of jar is actually from Pennsylvania or the Mid-Atlantic region. This jar is not unique, seeing that I have seen others like it, but this particular example is perhaps the best glazed jar that I have seen. But I think this is a good example of where a glaze should not be used as the only means of attribution, which is a subject that I covered in my recently published eighth book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/.
Interestingly, this is a shape of jar that is similar to types produced by the Vickers family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, such as one example that was made by Thomas Vicker's in 1807 and displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/128469.
Furthermore, this type of jar may also be related to a style of jug that is often attributed to New England, which I also believe is actually from Pennsylvania or the Mid-Atlantic region, including one example that is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan (see below).
In fact, the MET even indicates in the information displayed with the jug that the attribution is based on the glaze, where I think this is a misconception made with some New England red earthenware that an attribution can be developed on just the glaze. I demonstrated in the New Hampshire book that this type of glaze happened all over America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and really it can happen anywhere earthenware was produced in the world.
Note: For more information about the Vickers family - see a feature story I wrote for the September 2, 2022 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, The Vickers Family Of Pennsylvania: Abolitionists, Farmers And Quaker Potters - A Short Examination Into A Unique American Ceramics Story: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2022/08/new-published-cover-story-vickers.html.
Comparison of 19th Century Red Earthenware Jug and Jar
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