Description:
Globular-shaped redware pot with wide mouth and attached strap handle. This form was used throughout New England as bean pots (also known as bean bakers), stew pots, herb pots, etc. The smaller sizes were also used for herb teas or similar brews, and the larger ones for "emptyings," the handful of dough reserved from each baking to ferment leaven for the next batch. Lead-glazed inside and out, or only on the interior, most of these pots had only one or no handle, ranged in capacity from a pint to a gallon, and came with matching tops ( this cover missing). These utilitarian wares were rarely decorated. This pot is probably an example of locally-made, thrown redware, and could have been made by any of the local potteries such as those in Whately, Ashfield, or Northampton, Massachusetts. The donor found the pot during renovations between the walls of the Heman Field house in Leveritt, Massachusetts. Moses Graves (1736-1803) acquired the property of Thomas Thomas in a tax default sale in 1788 or 1789, and sold it in March 1803 to Col. Rufus Graves (1758-1845), who was both Moses' nephew and son-in-law, who married Moses' daughter, Experience Graves (1776-1854) about 1795. Rufus Graves sold the house (building date not known) to Heman Field (1790-1842) and moved to Amherst in 1819, where he was instrumental in founding Amherst College; Heman's son Frederick William Field (b.1819) inherited the house. The inside of the mouth has a rim for receiving a lid (lid missing); the body is rounded and tapers to a flat base; the outer surface is severely pocked with glaze losses; and the base has a string wrapped around it. The surface of the ceramic is blackened and dirt with use.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+95.007 |
