SHARDS 2023 Winter-Spring

_________________________________________________ WINTER/SPRING 2023

LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT I hope that everyone had a chance to enjoy the summer and all it has to bring to New England, despite the unusual amount of rain. As summer winds down it is time to think about our fall programming and look forward to all that we have planned. We are continuing to have hybrid style meetings, both on zoom and in person, with the addition of a field trip later in the fall. I hope to see many of you in whatever format works for you as we have much to look forward to and share!

Our field trip this year to the New Hampshire seacoast is an opportunity to celebrate the work, passions and generosity of Ceramic Study Club members, Louise Richardson and Robert Barth.

Ceramic Study Club members along with Warner House volunteers excavated, cleaned and catalogued artifacts from the three different excavations in the 1990s. When Louise and Bob were not at the site, they were researching ceramic history and collecting vessels to match the excavated sherds. Vivian Hawes’ role was cataloging shards, creating vessel counts for several ceramic types and creating records of the ceramic and glass vessel identified. The new Carriage House, located on an excavated 19th century storage building houses the Richardson and Barth collections and Vivian’s records. The second stop on our field trip is the New Castle Historical Society with Tad Baker of Salem State and Alix Martin of University of New Hampshire to view a complementary collection. The Demers Collection was gathered by divers who collected ceramic types and vessels very different from the terrestrial archaeological collections. This two-stop field trip permits CSC members to see the fruition of seacoast CSC members' efforts to create a regional study center for ceramics.

At the end of September (9/28/2023, 1:00 pm) we will meet in person at King’s Chapel Parish Hall for a delightful show and tell-Sixty Years of Pots with Nicholas Johnson a long-time member and collector. Our October event (10/26/2023) is the field trip mentioned above to the Warner House in Portsmouth, NH and the New Castle Historical Society. We will have a tour of the house and a behind the scenes tour of the Barth and Richardson Collections in the newly built Carriage House. Afterwards we will venture to New Castle Historical Society in New Castle, NH and view the Demers Collection.

Yours truly, Martha Pinello Page 1

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS WITH A TALK ON EARLY CHARLESTOWN POTTERY Due to somewhat threatening winter weather conditions our January meeting, originally planned for the King’s Chapel Parish House, was delivered via Zoom where we heard our speaker Joe Bagley, City Archaeologist, Director of Archaeology, Boston Archaeology Program Office of Historic Preservation and CSC member. This was Joe’s second or third time speaking to our group; this time he was returning to speak on the topic of Jack and Acton: Uncovering Charlestown’s 18th century Enslaved Potters.

Joe’s talk was a bit of a continuation of his previous meetings with us and an update on his program’s research and recent discoveries. He began with some background about the Charlestown potteries and why they were even there. As with most potteries, their sites are usually contingent upon available clay deposits and Charlestown is no exception. Some twenty-thousand years ago two-mile-thick glacial ice covered the eastern seaboard from the Maine coast down to Boston. Its immense weight depressed the coastal topography and when the glacier receded that depression filled in with sea water and clay deposits from the ice sheet. This deposit is called Boston Blue Clay and in the 18th century these deposits were exposed by the Mystic River flowing down from the north into the Charlestown peninsula and into Boston Harbor. On the southern side of the town’s peninsula the shoreline was covered with thriving potteries and their loading docks jutting into the water. The potteries were a driving force of Charlestown’s economy before the Revolution. During the Battle of Bunker Hill the town was burned, the potteries destroyed and the potters scattered. The redware pottery industry really didn’t return to Charlestown and after the war the making of stoneware eventually became the primary focus of production.

An early map of Charlestown; the hatched lines along the north shore of the peninsula indicate clay deposits along the Mystic River, and along the south shore of the town all of the structures indicate the location of the thriving potteries.

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A map of eastern coastal New England in the 18th century illustrating the number of pottery sites in various towns. Note that Boston and Charlestown had a combined total of 44 potteries!

Leading potters in Charlestown were Isaac and Grace Parker. The Parker Pottery began in 1715 and by the time Isaac dies in 1742 he leaves his wife Grace with a thriving business to run as well as a family of eleven children to care for. Grace proceeds to grow the business into the largest pottery in New England by the time she dies in 1754. The business was then acquired by one John Harris who owned it until it was burnt down by the British. Grace has been celebrated as an 18th century woman managing such a successful business, but she had help. Not only were the Parkers shrewd (and somewhat ruthless) business managers, but they were also enslavers. Isaac’s probate inventory upon his death lists all his valuable business assets including: “one Negro man called Jack” and “one Negro boy called Acton” with a total value of 230 pounds sterling.

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The valuations placed on these two people in comparison to other enslaved persons in Boston at the time indicate that they were most likely skilled laborers. Jack was valued for less (80 pounds) as it is assumed that he was older, nearing his twilight years and therefore less productive whereas Acton, who was most likely an adolescent finishing up his apprenticeship, was valued for more (150 pounds) as he had more productive years ahead of him. And not only were they valuable for their skills to the Parkers, but they could also be hired out to other potteries and their wages collected by their owners.

Moving on from the history to actual artifacts of the Charlestown potters Joe shared images of the masses of artifacts retrieved from three major locations: the Parker Pottery, the City Square Tavern and the Town Dock. At the Parker Pottery there seems to remain some question as to the location and the specific type of the kiln they used – whether it was a bottle-form kiln or some kind of more horizontal structure. Oddly enough, in all the written descriptions of the great fire that burned Charlestown there is no mention of a bottle kiln which would have most likely been one of the few surviving structures. The dig took place primarily in the area of the wharf and the pottery’s warehouse which explained the presence of a lot of redware wasters.

In comparing artifacts from the two sites of the pottery and the tavern one can extrapolate various conclusions as to production and consumption. The pottery sight provided wasters which illustrate all the varieties of pots made, experimentation in production, the quantities being made and the timeline as to when certain examples were made. At the tavern sight artifacts provide information about consumption such as the demand for certain pieces, what the finished forms looked like, which specific types were valued by specific institutions and individuals as well as their popularity and their use.

The redwares themselves display a very colorful body type which demonstrates that the potters were actually working with oxygen and reduction methods in the kilns to create a varied-colored body which turned out as a mottled red and green surface. On mugs there seems to be a very consistent pattern of yellow banding and dot decoration, rims with no incising and a cordoned half circle foot. The other consistent design motifs are swags and bars – the swags most likely done with a stamp, possibly fashioned from a shell.

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All porringers have sideways handles and as design motifs there are swags and finger dots. See below.

Some pieces show a reduction method that produced a black and yellow color combination decorated with a sun and star motif. See below left. And other motifs include an unusual earshaped stamp and delicate and broad arches or swags. See below right.

And lastly, there is an unusual ‘broad brush’ petal design. See below.

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And most importantly, Joe wanted to share with us intact objects that have existed above ground such as these pieces shown below. He is convinced that given the success of the pottery there are more examples of these wares ‘out there’ so study these designs and wares and keep an eye out!

In conclusion Joe mentioned a (so far) unsuccessful grant proposal for The Jack & Acton Project.

This would be a two- year collaboration between the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford and the Archaeology Program Office that would fund the Digitization of the huge Parker Harris Collection, create an identification guide and technical analysis of Jack and Acton’s work, create interactive pottery demonstrations, identify Jack and Acton as possibly working at the RoyalL House, explore West African influences, and create online and in-person exhibits. If anyone knows of a donor or institution who could assist with providing the $29,650.00 budget Joe would be delighted to hear from you.

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FEBRUARY BITS ‘N’ PIECES February always ushers in our much-loved Bits ‘n’ Pieces program – along with some traditionally cold or difficult weather which can prove a hindrance to members meeting at the Parish House in Boston. Fortunately, Program Director Anne Lanning now leaves several meetings open out of each program year for such occasions when we can gather via Zoom whether to hear a speaker from abroad or meet and share objects with each other. Nothing will ever replace meeting in person and enjoying a close-up view of members’ treasures, but attendance was strong, and the program was able to proceed and listed ten presenters from the membership with their recent acquisitions to share. Here is what we had to enjoy this year:

Elizabeth Collins had a green-glazed Chinese ‘Cadogan’ wine pot. Modeled in the form of a peach, with leaves and blossoms, it is a Chinese symbol of longevity, and was similar to 18th century puzzle jugs in the West as it was indeed a puzzle. The bottom has an open hole connecting to a long tube up the interior center; one can fill the pot by turning it upside down and when it’s turned upright, the wine doesn’t flow out the bottom, but only through the spout. More research needs to be done on dating the piece.

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(Previous Page, above) Our resident miniaturist potter, Lee-Ann Wessel, shared two of her creations based upon Italian Renaissance pieces of pottery – one a bottle form guglet hand-painted with The Death of Cleopatra, the reverse shown next to it, and a spouted apothecary jar from a Italian workshop, by an Kutahya artist known for these odd figural designs.

Member Nic Johnson shared an example of Turkish Kutahya ware, a bottle made of a white clay body and the design outlined win black and filled in with subtle wash colors; this is not as bold as the usual colors one sees on these pieces. Dating from 1900-1950s – it is difficult to tell as so much of this was produced. Also, a vintage Moroccan blue and white plate of unusually small 5”6” size from Safi on the west coast of Morocco. Unglazed on the reverse; the foot rim pierced for wall-hanging.

Some fine English wares were presented by Greg Lovell starting with (above left) a pair of Chelsea porcelain leaf-shaped dishes dating from the 1750s with the Red Anchor mark. Exhibiting relief molding, soft glazes and enamels and a tiny mark on the reverse by the foot. When a strong light is shown through it one can see small white spots called “moons” in the body of the piece.

And (above right) a relief-molded hand-painted Worcester sauceboat dating to circa 1754-1756 – after that date the elevated foot disappears, and transfer-printed designs take over.

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Greg’s other two pieces were equally beautiful. Above left, a large Worcester covered, ribbed canister with landscape roundels and honey gilding. Dating to the 1770s, these were part of expensive tea sets, or sold as pairs for mantle garnitures. And, above right, a Derby bagpiper candleholder with a bocage surround, dating to after 1770 – this one purchased damaged on e-bay for $20 and now masterfully restored.

Shards Editor Jeffrey Brown had his annual contribution of blue and white wares to show. Above left a Chinese export porcelain barber’s bowl painted in underglaze blue from the Yongzheng period, circa 1730, a fairly luxurious object to be shaving yourself with at the time. And, above right, a pair of Worcester transfer print decorated mugs, each with an ‘exotic’ Chinese scene on one side, and a typically European figural fishing scene on the other; an odd juxtaposition of designs. Circa 1770s.

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Above left: Jeffrey had questions as to what this piece really was. Most likely Dutch delftware, the bottom unmarked and with a cork-stoppered hole for re-filling, the decoration spontaneous and charming, with a perforated dome top. He assumed it was a sugar caster, the holes being too big for it to be a pounce pot, perhaps a quill holder? One of the Zoom viewers suggested it was a potpourri holder which makes perfect sense!

Above Right: A rare slip-cast unglazed stoneware mug, Elers, Bradford Wood, Staffordshire, 16931697 was shared by member Bob Barth.

JoAnn Brown shared some travel souvenirs from a trip to China in the 1990s – a wonderful collection of unglazed stoneware Yixing teapots made in red, blue, and black clays with molded relief decoration. When someone inquired as to whether they are slip-cast, Bill Sargent weighed in and said they are traditionally of slab construction.

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VIVIAN HAWES MEMORIAL LECTURE ON IRISH FINE CERAMICS Each year the Club remembers President, Treasurer, ceramics scholar and friend, Vivian Hawes with a lecture in her honor this time with with a talk via Zoom from Ireland. Mr. Peter Francis, Formerly Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast spoke to us on the subject of Early Irish Fine Ceramics 1697-1840: Delftwares, Creamwares and ‘Stickwares’.

Peter began with a bit of the backstory leading to this subject matter as he was approached in the year 2000 by well-known London dealer Jonathan Horne and asked to produce a catalogue on Irish Delftware for an exhibition Jonathan was preparing in London. What began as an exhibition catalogue of eighty pages ended up taking two years and produced a 200+ page volume with additional research and images by Michael Archer from the V&A Museum.

Most of the Irish ceramic industry Peter discussed focused on the 100-mile stretch between Belfast and Dublin on the east coast of the country. Around 1697 one of the earliest potteries was set up in Dublin by one Matthew Garner. But Garner’s story begins well before that when he appears first around 1666 in London working at a Southwark pottery producing delftwares. In 1687 Garner moves to the Montague Coates Pottery in London, and in 1691 he lost that job and took a place with John Dwight making red stoneware in the manner of the Elers brothers. At some point he loses that job and, bankrupt and homeless, returns to Belfast. Now Belfast had a sugar refinery processing West Indian sugar cane and the town was in need of another industry that could produce trade items to load onto the empty returning ships that brought in the sugar cane. Garner helped set up the ‘Pot House’ in Belfast producing delftwares from locally mined clay deposits.

Peter discovered the Pot House kilns were peat fired and thought that unique to Belfast, but later found out that other potteries also employed this method, even some in Holland. Several of the earliest Belfast pieces that were discovered are a pair of delft shoes and a large 20” loving cup now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Belfast dated 1712. See below:

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Although the Belfast pottery closed in 1725 and its output was small compared to other potteries in Britain, its effect on the pottery industry remained enormous as Belfast clay deposits continued to be mined and the clay went on to supply a plethora of delftware potteries both in England and Ireland such as Liverpool, Lancaster, Dublin, London and Bristol.

At this point the story moves to Dublin which, with a population of 60,000 people was the second largest city in the British Isles. Unemployed potters from Belfast moved to Dublin where an entrepreneur, John Chambers, opens a pottery on the edge of town. One of his earliest ‘masterpieces’ is a large charger bearing the Arms of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (in hopes of attracting some government patronage) which is inscribed Dublin 1735 (pictured below left).

What a difference a big investor makes! Pictured left is the only attributable piece of early Dublin delftware – an armorial charger for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1735. Pictured right, the level of quality now being produced after 1751 with Henry Delamaine’s patronage – this plate is from a service made for Delamaine’s nephew upon his marriage into a wealthy French family.

For the first fifteen years of the pottery’s existence there are no other clues helping identify a specific Dublin piece. It isn’t until when one of Chambers’ successors named Henry Delamaine invests great sums in the company in order to improve the quality of Dublin delft in order to make it competitive with continental wares. What makes this period of Dublin delft a lot easier to recognize is that about half of it bears some small numerical or letter mark on the reverse. Peter surmises that the factory employed decorators on a piecemeal basis and that in order for the workers to get paid they could tally up the number of pieces they had decorated with their specific mark on each. Marks often appeared not on the bottom of a plate but on the reverse side of the plate rim. Monogram marks tend to date from the 1750s; and numerical marks date from the 1760s.

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Stylistically, Dublin delft attempted to imitate all the fashionable styles and designs of the day.

One example is what is called the classic “Irish Landscape” below left. They also attempted a pretty good copy of French Rouen pottery below right.

The Editor apologizes for the dreadful quality of the photo on the left – taken from a monitor screen. The problems with Zoom!

Dublin’s attempts at imitating English wares such as Worcester were a bit problematic as the factory – unlike Staffordshire -- did not have experienced mold-makers. If Dublin wanted to knockoff a Worcester dish or basket, they actually bought a Worcester piece and made a mold of that. As one can see the molding just lacks that crisp detail. See below left. On a similar note, there is also very little variation in the shapes and sizes of dishes as there were few form-makers and their choices were limited. Below right are some of the other patterns Dublin was emulating – note all the Chinese export designs.

Another Dublin patterns inspired by competitors’ fashionable wares of the time is a distinctive French style floral sprig pattern in blue, yellow and green below left. And their variation of the Liverpool Fitzackerley pattern below right.

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A final note on Dublin patterns, whilst researching the catalogue Peter heard from John Austin at Colonial Williamsburg who presented Peter with Irish delftwares in patterns he had never seen before, quite coarsely painted, but distinctively numbered as the Dublin marks. Many examples were from Colonial Williamsburg, and yet one had been unearthed at the site of a trapper’s cabin in Michigan!! Perhaps some lesser quality wares for shipment to the undiscerning colonials in America?

Moving on, by 1773 the Delamaine family was no longer associated with the factory. All delftware production had pretty much ceased by the autumn of 1772 when they pottery brought in advisors from Staffordshire who helped convert the kiln from delftware to creamware production.

Unfortunately, to date Peter has not been able to specifically identify any pieces from this period.

In 1785 when the Dublin factory finally closes, production moves back north to Belfast as a new clay source had been located perfect for creamware production. The new scheme was underwritten by an entrepreneur named Thomas Greg who had very ambitious plans. He not only founded a pottery at one end of the Belfast waterfront, but a glass house at the other end with plans to use the waste from both operations to fill in the swampy, unprofitable coastline in between. Shards from digs into that reclamation land yielded a treasure trove that inspired for Peter’s next book A Pottery by the Lagan; Irish Creamware Pottery from the Downshire Pottery 1787-1806.

See below:

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Working from excavated shards from the Downshire site Peter made a couple observations. First, that the wares had very distinctive molded details so the issue with finding skilled mold-makers must have been resolved, and second, the somewhat limited colors used for decoration. Not having access to the range of enamels that existed in the Staffordshire potteries, Downshire pottery featured a lot of manganese, yellow and blue.

Images above representing Downshire Creamware Pottery with molded details on the sauceboat handle and feathered edge plate, and the somewhat limited color palette on the cream jugs, note the somewhat naïve decoration on the pitcher to the far right – perhaps the work of child labor?

In 1806, creamware manufacturing ceased and the Irish ceramics story now moves back to Dublin again, but on a very limited scale. It seems several of the higher end retailers in town started an enameling kiln and were just importing porcelain blanks and having them decorated for their clients. These pieces are recognizable as they are often signed with the retailer’s name. See below.

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One of the more successful retailers to do bespoke services signed his wares ‘Jackson’ and imported Worcester porcelain blanks and had a rather skilled decorator on staff judging from this fine plate below – note the charming Irish shamrock detail.

In contrast to the elegant Dublin-decorated Worcester porcelain blank on the left, on the right we have a closeup of the stamped decoration of the Belfast Stickwares.

Peter’s concluding category in his talk brought us back up to Belfast where wares were being produced for a decidedly less affluent market. These brightly colored wares are often referred to as ‘Stickwares’ for their method of decoration which always seems to include variations of small, ribbed, circular stamped designs. Cleverly produced, these graphics were the print of a dried stem of common Cow Parsley which grows wild along the roadsides. The dried stem is ribbed and hollow and when cut horizontally or at an angle creates a perfect natural stamp to decorate with.

Also called ‘sponged wares’, this method quickly and cheaply filled as much area as possible with decoration in the least amount of time. This last gasp of Belfast pottery production lasted between 1820 and 1835. It is no coincidence that shortly thereafter pottery called ‘Stick Spatter’ began to appear in production in Scotland.

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Examples above of the variations of designs achieved by “Stickware’ stamps. Below, actual Stickware stamps created by our speaker from the dried-out stem of the Cow Parsley plant.

In the 1960s when these wares were ‘discovered’ and became a favorite of collectors, masses of it turned up in Canada but were falsely attributed to an unknown factory called Pont Neuf, when in fact they were simply Belfast and Scottish wares that had been brought over from Ireland and Scotland.

NEW GALLERIES AT PEM ON THE PROGRAM IN APRIL In April the Club hosted an in-person lecture at the King’s Chapel Parish House in Boston welcoming Sarah Chasse, Associate Curator at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem who spoke to the group on a recently unveiled gallery space at the institution, her subject being Seeing Ourselves: American Ceramics in the New Native American and American Art Galleries at PEM. In March 2022 proudly opened their new 10,000 square foot galleries dedicated to displaying their celebrated collections of Native American and American art. Planning for this path breaking initiative began during the summer of 2018, grounded in the idea that artistic expression has the power to define and redefine our concept of America. We convey our identity - personal, national, and cultural, through diverse objects. Over 350 artworks span in time from 10,000 years ago to today and demonstrate a range of voices, modes of expression, cultures, and media. The galleries explore ideas and themes that explore links, continuities, and disjunctions between historical and contemporary objects across the Native and American art collections. Ceramics play a key role in the gallery and dozens of works are woven throughout all the sections of the installation representing the work of many cultures, communities, and individual artists. Through their selections of Native American and American ceramics PEM can explore the historic and contemporary connections and traditions of creating in this medium across generations. Although Sarah was with us to share this work, she wanted to stress that this was very much a collaborative project. She co-curated the galleries with Karen Kramer, the Stuart W. and Elizabeth F. Pratt Curator of Native American and Oceanic Page 17

Art and Culture. The descriptions of Native American ceramics detailed here were written by Karen and Sarah also wanted to call out her collaborator in researching and writing about American artworks in the gallery, Lan Morgan, assistant curator at PEM and member of the Ceramics Study Club. The descriptions of American artworks are both her words and Sarah’s.

The galleries feature 30 labels that are authored by guest writers from many different perspectives, cultures and experiences. The work of Ben Owen is included in one section looking more closely at American identity and also explores themes of intergenerational connections through ceramic making since Ben is a 4th generation American potter working in Seagrove, NC. They commissioned the artist to write a label for this work and he wrote about the significance of the ancient form of the gourd to humanity since ancient times.

In the Heroes and Histories section they juxtapose artworks from across time and geography, to tell stories of religious persecution and wartime conflicts, and bring forward new ways of looking at the past asking visitors to contemplate if the same stories are repeatedly told, whose stories are missing?

In one of our more provocative pairings, we juxtapose the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 exploring themes of religious persecution, violence, and the brutal international quest for land in 17th century North America. We elucidate how artists help us imagine historical moments visually.

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Contemporary ceramics by Virgil Ortiz and Jason Garcia help us visualize stories of the pueblo revolt when Indigenous peoples in the Southwest revolted after nearly 80 years of subjugation, high taxes, and physical punishment by the Spanish church and other colonizers. The legacy of the revolt still burns brightly for Pueblo peoples, symbolizing Indigenous resistance and unity. Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz also refers to the Pueblo Revolt as "America's as First Revolution." His aim is to tell this important but underrecognized history, and honor Po’Pay as its leader in his figural reimagining. Santa Clara Pueblo ceramicist Jason Garcia tells the story of the revolt across seven comic book covers, picturing the Puebloans as superheroes fighting for truth, justice, and the Pueblo worldview. (See below).

Through the galleries ceramics are also in conversation with other media such as Lonnie Vigil’s jar in a grouping with John Sloan’s Arroyo, Santa Fe, and Kay WalkingStick’s Hovenweep, in an exploration of artists’ depictions of the Southwestern desert landscape. And seen below there is Virgil Ortez’ Po’Pay Forseer of 1680 displayed next to Jason Garcia’s Tales of Suspense series.

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Sarah moved on asking the question “Can a teapot be political?” For the artists represented here, ceramics are the platform of choice for their activism. They express their political sentiment through clay, a versatile material that can be formed, molded, glazed, and decorated to produce myriad designs. The earliest teapot in the display celebrates the repeal of British taxation in the American colonies, circa 1766-1770. In comparison, there is contemporary artist Michelle Erickson’s precarious grouping of tea wares in porcelain, stoneware, earthenware with enamel and goldleaf. Entitled Teapot in Hand, it explores the migration of ideas and cultural influences in the decorative arts creating a playful arena in which fragments of Eastern and Western culture assemble a precarious stairway into the future. A canted blue Delft tea tray offers up a teetering stack of triangular tea bowls, each decorated with a fractured Japanese print. Above, a hand holds this precious cargo and compensates for the imbalance below. A teapot, combining high-fired red earthenware with porcelain agate, references the adaptation of Chinese Yixing tea wares by 17thcentury European potters. Europeans were fascinated with “ceramic gold”—as Asian porcelain was then referred to—and struggled to imitate it for centuries. Their pursuit of this Holy Grail of ceramic bodies became the single driving force in the development of Western ceramics for the next 200 years and established a unique genre in decorative art. A mischievous guardian lion, indifferent to the potential calamity below, bounces a porcelain cup and saucer at the top of the spire. Fragmented and restored with gold, these pieces reconstruct the past as they arrive in the present. (See below).

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Thomas W. Commeraw is one of a few known free Black potters working in the period before the Civil War. He operated a stoneware pottery kiln in Corlears Hook in Lower Manhattan, a waterfront area near a busy international port and clay repositories. Commeraw was a shrewd businessman, often branding his wares to ensure his name recognition. The utilitarian wares he supplied to merchants and seamen have been discovered as far as Guyana, evidence of the global reach of his objects through trade. (See below).

Ultimately, On This Ground: Being and Belonging in America is a groundbreaking collaboration between two collections historically separated in our museum. Our collections help us tell more complex stories from broader perspectives, celebrate artistic achievements across time, space, Page 21

and worldviews and create a more expansive definition of American art. Ceramics are prevalent in the gallery, this overview represents just a fraction of the ceramics presented, holding their own with paintings and sculptures as one of the most-represented mediums among over 300 objects and it’s not happenstance. In On This Ground, ceramics, as vessels and sculptures actually made from this ground, do essential work helping us explore the complexities of American identity past and present.

EDITOR’S NOTE: With apologies, I was unable to attend this lecture and our recording equipment (such as it is) did a rather incomplete job. I therefore had to depend upon notes and images kindly supplied to me by our speaker, so the above article is just a small sampling of the images and information attendees got to enjoy that day. One of the most important messages, then, to take away from this is to visit the Peabody Essex Museum in person to indulge yourself in this visually delightful and thought-provoking exhibit.

PROGRAM SEASON ENDS WITH A TALK ON HISTORIC DEERFIELD’S COLLECTIONS The Club closed out a rather expansive program year – all thanks to the tireless efforts of Program Director Anne Lanning - with our Annual Meeting & Tea at the King’s Chapel Parish House in Boston. Our final talk of the season was presented by CSC member and past President Amanda Lange, the Curatorial Department Director and Curator of Historic Interiors at Historic Deerfield who spoke on the topic of The Latest Dish: Recent Ceramic Acquisitions at Historic Deerfield. Before speaking on the more recent acquisitions, though, Amanda started with a background history of Historic Deerfield, its founders, and original collections.

In May 1948, Henry and Helen Flynt, the founders of Historic Deerfield, opened their first restoration, the Ashley House, to the public. Little in their backgrounds would have predicted that they would become dedicated preservationists and collectors. Henry Flynt (1893-1970) grew up in Monson, Massachusetts, and practiced law in New York City, and Helen Geier Flynt (1895-1986) came from a wealthy Cincinnati manufacturing family. Both had come from collecting families, but the couple vowed early in their married life not to collect. Henry Flynt said, “When Helen and I were married in 1920, I decided that I would devote myself assiduously to ‘not collecting’ and so advised her. Everything went well for a number of years.”

Their interest in the town of Deerfield resulted from their involvement in the boarding school Deerfield Academy. In 1936, their son enrolled in Deerfield Academy and the Flynts formed a lifelong friendship with the headmaster, Frank Boyden (1879- 972). What began as an effort to help the Academy with several building projects led to an enthusiastic restoration of many of the old houses in the village. Over the next twenty years they restored and furnished ten houses. Henry and Helen Flynt strongly believed that Deerfield represented the epitome of frontier American values, and that those values offered an antidote to the Cold War-era spread of Communism.

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The stories of the colonial British settlement’s early years of conflict and eventual economic success resonated with Henry and Helen Flynt, just as they had with earlier historians and school children alike. While the Flynts’ initial interest in Deerfield involved the restoration and preservation of old houses, their attention soon turned to furnishing those interiors with suitable decorative arts from the 18th and 19th centuries. They enjoyed success acquiring Connecticut River Valley pieces of furniture but locating ceramics with local histories proved more difficult.

The Flynts at home with their collection.

Consequently, the Flynts often purchased English pottery and Chinese porcelains to fill cupboards, pantries, and dining rooms without regard to their appropriateness for the American market. Many of their selections would have never been available to residents of the Connecticut River Valley. Their choices were guided less by the goal of historical accuracy and more by the idea of the creation of beautiful rooms by the standards of the 1950s and 60s. They were also helped and inspired by other dealers, museum curators, and their vast array of friends and rivals such as Henry Francis DuPont, Electra Webb, Ima Hogg, Katharine Prentis Murphy, and Alice Winchester. Buying primarily through American dealers, the Flynts were attracted to colorful pieces of English pottery –- specifically English delftware, English white salt-glazed stoneware -- and Chinese export porcelains. Their purchases often reflected an enthusiasm for early America’s social and political history. The collection contains many pieces of delftware decorated with images of English royalty, such as Charles II, William and Mary, and Anne, and political heroes such as John Wilkes and Major General James Wolfe.

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There were also tea sets related to important heroes of the American Revolution such as this Chinese export porcelain tea set owned by Dr. David Townsend, a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal order of French and American Revolutionary war officers, plus letter from Samuel Shaw giving it to Dr. Townsend (See above). During the 1950s and 1960s, the Flynts amassed a significant collection of Chinese export porcelain. These purchases resulted in several areas of strength in the collection: famille rose wares, armorial porcelains, ink-color wares, European-inspired designs, and pieces for the American market. For example, the collection boasts two Hong-decorated punch bowls. These extremely rare porcelain objects, decorated with scenes of the foreign factories or “hongs” at Canton, are important documents of the area where Western merchants lived and transacted business. Colonial Williamsburg just purchased an example of a Hong Punch Bowl at auction for $138,975. (See below).

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Several of the collection’s most superlative objects came from Emily “Millie” Manheim, Matthew & Elisabeth Sharpe, Elinor Gordon, and Bernard and S. Dean Levy. Whenever possible the Flynts acquired ceramics with local histories, such as the donation of several pieces from Miss Elizabeth Fuller. A descendant of one Deerfield’s most distinguished families, Miss Fuller generously donated Chinese export porcelain and delftware plates and bowls that had been owned by her ancestor, Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) of Deerfield. Henry and Helen Flynt ensured the future of their Deerfield project by creating an endowment, developing a summer fellowship program for college undergraduates, building a research library, and hiring a professional staff to administer the museum and to assume the duties of acquisitions. Continued study of Connecticut River Valley newspapers, probate inventories, merchants’ accounts, and the archaeological record reveals the presence and usage of many different types of imported ceramics not currently represented in the collection. The museum’s current collecting focus for ceramics emphasizes filling significant documented gaps and acquiring locally owned pieces.

Archaeology can fill in missing pieces in the written record, often correcting biases and frequently revealing surprising information. Prior to 2015, few 17th -century archaeological sites had been excavated in the Connecticut River Valley. Recent discoveries of early English colonial sites in Wethersfield, Windsor, and Glastonbury, Connecticut, have greatly enhanced our understanding of the material world of this time. These excavations turned up a global mix of ceramics from Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and England. For example, the Lieutenant John Hollister site (ca. 1650-1710), in modern-day Glastonbury, Connecticut, was an early fortified, 17th-century farm complex on the border of the “Wilds” or the Pequot homeland. Since 2015, the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology has conducted research excavations there as a public archaeology project. To date, archaeological excavations on the Glastonbury site have identified at least six Cellar holes that were filled around 1710. Identified shards included North Italian marbleized slip-decorated earthenwares, which inspired Historic Deerfield’s purchase of an Italian slipware costrel. (The dishes are much harder to find).

Imported ceramics and glass became precious luxuries at elite levels. The 1679 probate inventory of the Reverend Joseph Haynes (1641-1679) of Hartford, Connecticut, listed “one glass Case wt some glasses & Lisburne ware,” a common term for Portuguese tin-glazed earthenware, that stands apart from the earthenware listed elsewhere. New England merchants exchanged fish and wood products for Portuguese wines, brandy, and tin-glazed plates and dishes. While it is difficult to determine the appearance of Haynes’ “Lisburne” ware, it likely imitated more expensive blue and white Chinese porcelains. Fragments of suspected Portuguese tin-glazed earthenware have also been found at a Sokoki village in Hinsdale, NH – underscoring the value of these ceramics in local trade relationships. (See below image on the left).

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A recent ceramic purchase – with hope of finding evidence in the Connecticut River Valley – is this Spanish olive oil jar. The olive oil jar is an example of Spanish coarseware dating from the early to the mid-17th century. (See above right) Evolving from an amphorae shape, olive oil jars were manufactured in Seville, Spain, from the 16th century. The term olive oil jar is misleading because they were made as shipping containers of more than olives or olive oil. They held other commodities, as well, such as bullets, capers, beans and chickpeas, lard, tar, and wine. In fact, this example still smells of smoky pine pitch. According to ceramics historian C. Malcolm Watkins, owners often described these objects as “money jugs”. Jugs recovered from shipwrecks have been found with coins encased in pitch, a safer way to transport money. Their thickly and quickly potted walls made them cheap; their ovoid shape made them well suited for the curving walls of a ships hold where they could be packed tightly. These storage jars have been recovered from several in New England archaeological sites English slip-decorated earthenwares, predominately associated with Staffordshire, are common finds in most archaeological sites in the Connecticut River Valley, including Stiles-Ellsworth site in Windsor, Connecticut, dated ca. 1700-1710. The buff-colored earthenware body was coated in a layer of white slip (liquid clay), then decorated with iron-rich brown slips in combed, dotted, or marbleized patterns. A fragment associated with the Stiles site in Windsor exhibits the fine combed and marbled decoration associated with the early 18th -century examples. We purchased a dated example at the 2020 New York Ceramics Fair. English brown stoneware imports to the Valley are most prominently seen with advertisements of “Nottingham” or “brown” stonewares. In Deerfield, Massachusetts, a dated 1757 receipt in Elijah Williams’ papers listed “brown qt mugs,” Page 26

“brown pint mugs,” “½ pint brown mugs,” and “brown bools.” Those documented source inspired the museum’s first purchase of a Nottingham or Derbyshire brown stoneware mug with grog or potter’s waste applied as decoration. Nottingham wares are known for their lustrous brown glaze.

(See below left).

Tea and tea drinking equipage became a part of most of elite and aspiring Connecticut River Valley homes around the mid-1740s. The Delftware catalogue pointed out some weak areas of the collection -- Missing delftware tea ware forms try to fill those gaps. William Ellery of Hartford, Connecticut, advertised a wide assortment of delft in the Connecticut Courant of November 5, 1771, including “Delph Tea pots, dishes, flower horns, half gallon, quart, and pint bowls.”

(See above right). English delft cups and saucers were shipped to Britain’s North American colonies in large quantities in the mid-18th century, making them available to consumers in New England and the Connecticut River Valley. Merchant Samuel Colton of Longmeadow, Massachusetts sold delftware punch bowls, teacups and saucers, and plates in 1756. Similarly, Boston merchant Ebenezer Bridgham advertised “Delph bowls of all sizes, plates, dishes, cups & saucers” in the Connecticut Courant in 1772. These wares also appear in local estate records, including the 1790 probate inventory of Northfield, Massachusetts, resident Aaron Whitney, who owned “1 Sett of Delph Tea Cups Saucers.”

Plain undecorated creamware was a ceramic staple of the Connecticut River Valley. This advertisement by William Ellery in 1771 – listed the many forms of creamware he was selling --from fruit baskets to three -leaved pickle stands. Trustee Anne Groves has assisted me in developing the English ceramics collection immeasurably. With the help of Historic Deerfield Trustee Anne Groves, the museum was fortunate to acquire Alistair Sampson’s personal collection of 162 pieces of English creamware in 2006 -- making the museum a significant site for the study and examination of this important art form in the United States.

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Also supplementing that creamware collection is an 1814 copy of the Leeds Pottery Pattern book.

First issued in 1783 with only 45 plates, this publication was one of the earliest pattern books published in England by pottery manufacturers for the use of their travelers, with illustrations of all the articles produced by the firm. These catalogue/pattern books were produced for the use of the wholesale factors and commercial travelers who roamed throughout England and abroad, taking orders for the factory. This copy illustrates 269 designs numbered from 1 to 221 and 1 to 48 for tea ware.

A superlative example from the collection of Liverpool printed wares is this jug’s rare print of a cow and three figures seems to provide commentary on Jefferson’s controversial Embargo Act and the precarious state of trade among America, Britain, and France during the Napoleonic Wars.

John Bull (symbolizing England) and Napoleon (symbolizing France) pull the cow, possibly representing commerce, in different directions, while Jefferson sits in the middle milking the cow— a scene perhaps highlighting America’s difficult position between these warring foreign powers. As Liverpool printed pottery expert Robert McCauley notes, the cow’s immobile position, precipitated by Jefferson’s Embargo Act, also seems to suggest “commerce at a standstill with no benefit to anyone except the political advantage accruing to Thomas Jefferson.” (See below).

Research in documentary records have also yielded surprises and acquisition opportunities. I spent many fascinating hours poring over the many account books of New York City’s Frederick Rhinelander (1743-1805), one of the most prominent china and glass merchants in colonial America. Copies of Rhinelander’s correspondence and orders survive from 1774 to 1783, providing a fascinating look into American tastes and requirements. Knowing the practical nature of his clientele, Rhinelander focused on tablewares, teawares, and drinking vessels along with a few ornamental wares. Rhinelander had an extensive trade with New England, and Connecticut represented his second largest base of customers outside of New York. What surprised Amanda and what she didn’t expect to see - was two merchants -- William Ellery of Hartford, CT, [1771] Page 28

and John Atwater of Westfield, Massachusetts [1773], acquired “Cream Cd Pigeon Houses,” “Piggen House,” or creamware dovecotes. The ceramic ornament – priced at 3 shillings a piece must have been a luxury displayed in a corner cupboard or upon a mantelpiece. Fortunate Colonial Williamsburg owns an example of a dovecote or pigeon house ornament, but I have not seen many others in plain creamware.

As for Deerfield’s “wish list”, the institution is still looking to fill gaps in the collection based upon research carried out during the restoration of Barnard Tavern which provided food, beverages, and lodging for man and beasts from 1795 to 1806. Excavations thereby the University of Massachusetts Amherst Summer field school discovered many small fragments of what collectors call “mochaware” or slip-decorated earthenware, made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Several had marbleized and combed colored slip designs on the surface. We were fortunate to have collector and author Jonathan Rickard of Deep River, CT, donate several examples of this type of mochware to the collection. His small marmalade pot is displayed on the dining table in the parlor of Barnard Tavern.

Historic Deerfield Trustee Anne Groves has been particularly significant to the development of the English ceramics collection. Knowing the institution’s weakness in early English stonewares, Anne recently gave a doubled-walled mug or carved gorge, made by James Morley of Nottingham, England, ca. 1700. At present, only one example of this carved brown salt-glazed stoneware has been located at an American archaeological site. Excavations at the Drummond Planation site in James City County, Virginia yielded a fragment of a double-walled teacup with pierced decoration.

She also gave an early English white salt-glazed stoneware mug made by John Dwight of Fulham (London), England, c. 1690. Finely potted white salt-glazed stoneware mugs with tall necks and spherical shaped bodies, such as this example, are known to have been made by the welldocumented London stoneware potter, John Dwight (1633- 1703), who is often credited as the first stoneware potter in England to have achieved commercial success. By the 1680s, Dwight had ended his experiments with porcelain, and began to produce a number of “fine” wares. In a second patent obtained by Dwight in 1684, he included “white Gorges marbled Porcelane Vessels Statues and Figures and fine stone Gorges and Vessels never before made in England or elsewhere.” This stoneware mug is representative of the “white gorges” referenced in Dwight’s second patent. In the 1970s, archaeologists discovered sherds of similar wares at the site of Dwight’s Pottery in Fulham.

Dwight’s production of these fine wares was followed in the 1690s with lawsuits against a number of his London, Staffordshire, and Nottingham competitors for patent infringement, suggesting, as one study notes, that “a myriad of makers were producing wares imitating those made at Fulham.

(See below) Page 29

As for benefactors, Anne couldn’t speak of Historic Deerfield without a mention of Peter Spang, a Founding curator and Trustee, Peter Spang passed away in Beverly, Massachusetts on May 7, 2020.

His commitment to Deerfield was the central thread of our institutional history for three generations. Peter was first and foremost a steward of his adopted town of Deerfield. He valued tradition, collectors, and collecting --especially ocean liner memorabilia, architectural pattern books, and a small collection of ceramics – which he bequeathed to the museum. (Below left).

And our dear friend Barbara Cummings (above right), long-time CSC member and Deerfield docent bequeathed fine examples of delftware and black transfer-printed ware including a very rare transfer printing copper plate. Used in the process of transfer printing onto ceramics, this Page 30

rectangular copper plate is engraved on both sides with a version of the “Willow” pattern. The first step in the transfer printing process involved the creation of a copper plate engraved with a particular design. Ink was then applied to the surface of the plate, and a tissue paper like substance was pressed up against its surface. The tissue paper, carrying a copy of the design, was then removed from the plate and applied to a piece of pottery, thus transferring the design to the pottery’s surface. The design on one side of the copper plate is noticeably more worn compared with the other, suggesting that when one side became unusable, the engraver created a new, but identical design on the reverse. (See below).

For many years Historic Deerfield has been well known for its nationally recognized collections of Chinese export porcelain and English pottery. But since the institution’s founding in 1952, the presence and role of American redware has been underrepresented in our historic houses and museum exhibitions. Redware formed the most common ceramic type in New England households and came in forms ranging from storage jars and milk pans to harvest jugs and chamber pots. These wares were usually coarse, lead glazed and extremely fragile. Frequently damaged and easily broken, redware rarely survives to the present day. Historic Deerfield just didn’t have much to display until the last ten years of our organization’s history when the museum received two large gifts.

William “Bill” T. Brandon (1935-2005) of Concord, Massachusetts, grew up in North Carolina, but lived in Massachusetts for more than 50 years. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University with degrees in electrical engineering. Bill Brandon Page 31

became a recognized leader in the field of satellite communications, and was employed by Mitre, Raytheon, and Harris Corporations. One of his most important accomplishments was his work as the project manager for the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module power amplifier, used to return live television from the lunar surface. Brandon’s collection ranged in date from 18th to early 20th century examples, focusing predominately on New England-made ceramics, particularly redware, a topic on which he intended to write a book. His widow Sally Brandon Bemis gave the collection to Historic Deerfield in 2013 and 2014.

Examples from the Brandon Collection Pottery production in the Connecticut River Valley was part of the regional economy – usually produced by farmers in the off season to supplement their income. The town of Whately (just south of Deerfield) had an extensive deposit of clay in the southern part of town that accounts in part for the rapid growth in the pottery business there. One object of particular interest to Historic Deerfield is a large jar made by Martin Crafts (1805-1880) of Whately, Massachusetts. The eldest son of potter Thomas Crafts (1781-1861), Martin worked with his father until late 1833, when he left to run potteries in Portland, Maine, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Boston, Massachusetts. In 1857, Martin returned to Whately and ran the Crafts pottery until its close in 1861. This impressive redware jar, marked “The Property of Martin Crafts” and dated “April the 1, 1830,” is a tour-de-force. (See below)

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In January 2020 (just before the pandemic began) Historic Deerfield acquired a second private collection of American redware – containing mostly pieces from New England. The donor collected American folk art especially painted furniture, weathervanes, painted tinware, needlework, watercolors, and redware. Although this person maintained a low profile among collectors, the donor had strong relationships with Americana dealers, especially Lew Scranton, an Americana dealer from Killingworth, CT. He was the main supplier of the American redware collection, and the donor emulated his aesthetic sense too. For the most part – it is as you see it today -- a project that is on my to-do list. But one that I am looking forward to. The donor acquired an amazing group of New England redwares (mostly from Bristol County, MA, Hartford and Norwalk, CT) totaling about 200 examples. Redware scholar Justin Thomas has been helping us to identify the collection.

Examples of a redware collection formed by an anonymous donor and Connecticut dealer Lewis Scranton.

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The aesthetics of utilitarian domestic red earthenware are what collectors and museums have been drawn to for more than a century now, although, it was likely an important factor in the marketplace even when red earthenware was originally produced in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In New England, the wares manufactured in southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County and Cape Cod were unquestionably at the forefront of the visual appeal of the region’s red earthenware production. The wares produced in this part of Massachusetts have it all: form, glaze, skill and refinement, transforming many of these objects into works of art. This new collection contains some very intriguing examples of Connecticut-made redware. The largest redware kiln sites in Connecticut were located in Hartford and Norwalk, CT. Several redware potteries existed in the Hartford County before the American Revolution. The most famous of the CT potters were the Seymours, the Goodwins and Hervey Brooks, but there were other potters as well. (Justin just wrote a book on the subject) Deerfield has several early examples of pottery attributed to the Seymour pottery of West Hartford, CT. (Attribution is based on a jug in the Wadsworth Atheneum that descended in the potter’s family).

Norwalk Pottery. In 1793, Absalom Day leased property in Norwalk for a pothouse that he ran until 1841. Day was born and trained as a potter in Chatham, New Jersey, and he is thought to bethe originator of the characteristic Norwalk slip-script decoration. Amanda was particularly excited to acquire a number of examples of slip script dishes usually associated with the Asa Smith Pottery of Norwalk, CT, c. 1824 to 1854. These dishes are inscribed for Lafayette, St. Martha Virgin, Sarah’s Dish, Mince Pie, John, ABC, and some with initials. The most significant kiln in Norwalk was owned by Asa A. Smith and was established c. 1825 in what is now downtown Norwalk. Smith had been an apprentice of Absalom Day, and his pottery produced the majority of the slip-script wares. Notice that these dishes are molded using a drape mold, and not thrown on a wheel like other New England plates and dishes.

In 18th- and 19th-century Britain, locally produced ceramics became an important medium for denouncing the horrors of slavery. Founded in 1787, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in England began a movement that led to the prohibition of the international trade in 1807. This milestone was followed by a second in 1834 when the practice of slavery was abolished (with some exceptions) throughout the British Empire. These changing attitudes towards slavery are poignantly reflected in a group of British ceramics at Historic Deerfield, many of which are recent additions to the collection. A luster-decorated jug with a scene of a seated enslaved man partly bound in chains is accompanied by the phrase, “Am not I a Man and a Brother”—a design inspired by a jasperware medallion produced by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) in 1787. This scene, along with a lengthy verse from William Cowper’s (1731-1800) poem “The Negro’s Complaint” (1788) printed on the reverse, highlights the plight of the enslaved while appealing to

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a sense of common humanity. The jug’s small size suggests it was used as a display piece in the home and was likely purchased at an anti-slavery fair where similar ceramics were available for purchase.

Just like the Flynts experienced in the 1930s, Deerfield continues to inspire visitors looking for symbols of our past and for answers to questions about the New England experience. Deerfield’s sense of place, its authenticity, and grounding in historical documents will assist us in learning more about the context of early New England life and at the same time, enable us to find sanctuary from the rush of modern life.

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And finally, two recent images from London: On the Left: For those of you blue and white collectors who have everything, perhaps this may finish off your collections – as seen in a shop window off Pall Mall – a Limited Edition Dolce and Gabbana SMEG Mini-Fridge decorated with 18th century Delftware designs and patterns…place your orders now…all the oligarchs are snapping them up!

On the Right: And for those collectors who think their collections have gotten out-of-hand…this image from one shelf in the V&A Ceramics Department will prove to you that more work needs to be done! ______________________________________________________________________________

And with deepest appreciation to member Nic Johnson for scrupulously editing each issue of our newsletter and for his maintenance of the CSC website on which all SHARDS issues are archived.

Jeffrey Brown __________________________________________________________________ Page 36