construction were often made of redware. Bricks, roof tiles, stovepipes, and clay pipe for transporting water were some of the building-related consumer goods offered. Again, recognizing the quality and abundance, "early residents founded a large industry on the bed of fine clay which extended from Hartford to Berlin."29 This brings us back to Nathaniel Seymour, who not only made hollowware but also in 1807 bought the rights to make, use, and sell Mr. Samuel Bartlett's "new [sic] invented Conduit of Clay."3° This was a fastgrowing business, and in 1811, another West Hartford potter, Seth Goodwin, who started his pottery before 1800, is said to have included in his business the manufacture of redware water pipe.3'Mrs. W.J. Craig, great-great-granddaughter of Seth Goodwin's, found just such redware pipe on the grounds of the Goodwin homestead, which is located at 1198 New Britain Avenue, in the Elmwood section of West Hartford.32 Research of this kind presents itself much as a puzzle—to be assembled one piece of information at a time. As more pieces of the proverbial puzzle are located and joined together, the picture becomes clearer. The intent of this essay was to bring forth facts about a person who is often mentioned in pottery-related literary text but when cited is accompanied by few details. From one volume to the next, those same meager details are repeated again and again. That has changed; here is a collection of new information—brought to the table for the very first time—from Nathaniel Seymour's genealogy and our ability to trace it back six generations, to his wife Sarah Kellogg, and the names and vital records of their five children, and, ultimately, to the discovery of Nathaniel's grave. These fragments of information, along with others cited, assist us in a better understanding of Nathaniel Seymour as a person. With regard to a better recognition of his artistry, a body of work attributable to Seymour's pottery has been assembled for discussion and comparison, giving us the ability to note a variety of forms that share his particular decorative approach.*
06 WINTER 2002/2003 FOLK ART
Author's note: The author would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance during the preparation of this essay: Thomas Denenberg, Trina Evarts Bowman, Judith Livingston Loto, Sharon Steinberg, and Martha Smart. He would also like to offer special thanks to Lewis W. Scranton for sharing his extraordinary expertise in the field of New England redware. Vincent DiCicco, a student at the American Folk Art Museum's Folk Art Institute, is presently working toward a museum certificate infolk art studies. Previously published in Folk Art magazine, DiCicco's essay "Silhouette Portraiture in America: A Fully Developed Form ofFolk Expression" wasfeatured in thefall 2001 issue. NOTES 1 Nelson R. Burr, From Colonial Parish to Modern Suburb: A BriefAppreciation of West Hartford(The Noah Webster Foundation and Historical Society of West Hartford,Inc., revised ed., 1982), p. 81. 2 Connecticut Capital Region Growth Council Town Profile, 1998. 3 Burr, op. cit., p. 54. 4 Lura Woodside Watkins,Early New England Potters and Their Wares(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Inc., 1950), p. 193. 5 John Spargo,Early American Pottery and China(New York/London: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc., 1938), p. 107. 6 Ibid., p. 119. 7 Ellen Paul Denker,"Ceramics at the Crossroads: American Pottery at New York's Gateway, 1750-1900," Staten Island Historian (Staten Island Historical Society, Winter-Spring, 1986), p. 23. 8 Brian Cullity, Slipped and Glazed: Regional American Redware(Sandwich, Mass.: Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, 1991), exhibition catalog, p. 40. 9 Albert Hastings Pitkin, Early American Folk Pottery, Including the History ofthe Bennington Pottery (Hartford, Conn.: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1918), p. 84. 10 Ibid, p. 84. 11 Ibid, pp. 84-85. 12 The Brooklyn Museum, A.W. Clement Collection: Covered Jar, New England, 45.1.38. 13 Donald Lines Jacobus,compiled and arranged under the direction of George Dudley Seymour,A History ofthe Seymour Family: Descendants ofRichard Seymour ofHartford, Connecticut,for SLY Generations(New Haven,Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, printer, 1939), pp. 120-121.
FLASK c. 1800-1830 Lead-glazed red earthenware, brushed slip decoration punctuated with green 5/ 3 4 3/ 1 2" Private collection
14 Ibid., p. 121. 15 Ibid., pp. 120 and 200. 16 Jacobus, op. cit., pp. 200-201 and 293-296. 17 National Archives, U.S. Census microfilm reference #.1498,reel #1, p. 47. 18 Ibid., p. 47. 19 National Archives, U.S. Census microfilm reference #M252,reel #1, p.426. 20 Ibid., microfilm reference #M33,reel #2, p. 90. 21 J. Garrison Stradling,"Historical Society Gets Down to Earth: Redware Makes It in Connecticut," Maine Antique Digest (Waldoboro, Maine: February 1984), p. 13-C. 22 Jacobus, op. cit., pp. 293-296. 23 Pitkin, op. cit., p. 84. 24 Jacobus,op. cit., p. 295. 25 Burr,op. cit., p. 46. 26 Connecticut State Library, microfilm reference #183-184, Hartford Vols. 78-79,Deeds 1849-1850. Box #662. 27 Jacobus, op. cit. 28 William C. Ketchum Jr., American Redware(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1991), pp. 15-45. 29 Burr, op. cit., p. 53. 30 Connecticut Courant, newspaper advertisement, Feb. 11, 1807, p. 2. 31 Burr, op. cit., p. 54. 32 Watkins, op. cit., pp. 192-193.