Description:
Baked beans have been a staple in the United States for generations, and the redware bean pot was a common item. Lead-glazed inside and out or only on the interior, with one, two or no handles, these squat round forms ranged in capacity from a pint to a gallon and came with matching lids. Also sometimes listed as "bean bakers" in potters' price lists. Unusual redware handless jar (bean pot?), bulbous cylindrical form with rounded rim, tapered neck, broadening shoulders, and tapering base, flat bottom; exterior is partially glazed and partially unglazed especially the lower half, it is also heavily blackened with soot and grease from the fireplace; impressed into the shoulder of the pot are the large glazed letters "ABRAHAM DODGE" with a scribe line underneath; interior is glazed, mid 19th century. Condition: Interior has a large hairline crack. Copied type written note left inside of bean pot reads: "Bean Pot/ New England (Probably Portland, Maine)/ 1800-1900/ Redware/ The pot is glazed with a dull green to cream colored glazed on the interior found on some Maine redware. The shoulder has the name ABRAHAM DODGE impressed in bold 1 inch letters which have been filled with glaze. The remaining exterior surface is blackened presumably from use in an oven./ height: 6 1/2" maximum diameter 7 1/4"/ Notes: From the genealogy of the Dodge family, there are two men named Abraham Dodge: a brick layer, b. 1761, d. 1848 at Newburyport; and his son, b. Newburyport, 1811. This branch of the family does not appear closely related to the Benjamin Dodge and son Benjamin, potters of Exeter, N.H. and Portland, Maine." There is also an Abraham Dodge who lived in Beverly, MA -- Abraham Dodge, son of Capt. Jacob Dodge, Aug 1764? - Dec 1841. Another stamped redware bean pot exists in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village, 87.10.6. It is impressed "H. T. LONGLEY/ WESTBORO." It is glazed inside and near the handle on the outside only and is missing its original lid. Westborough, MA is located near Shrewsbury and Framingham, MA. Similar examples have been located: Old Sturbridge Village has another example 87.10.5, impressed "C. A. APPLETON." Historic New England has an example, 1937.828, incised "WHITING." The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, owns a bean pot with the stamped name, "B. O. PIERCE." The Beverly Historical Society owns a stamped monumental bean pot made for the first mayor of Beverly from the Beverly Pottery Jan. 1895. This example is attributed to the Exeter Pottery Works based on a similar example in thecollection of Karl F. Lamson stamped "A. DODGE" possibly for Mary Abbie Lamson Dodge, the sister of Frank Lamson. The Exeter Pottery Works was established in Exeter, New Hampshire, around 1771, by Jabez Dodge (b. 1746/7-d.1806). Dodge was possibly trained by one of the numerous potters in Essex County, Massachusetts, where he established the Dodge Pottery. This site was the training ground for four of his sons. His third son, Samuel, worked at the Exeter Pottery with his father and in 1819, build the structures that were used continously throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and known as the Exeter Pottery Works.
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