Description:
Molded, circular, yellowware pie plate with steep, canted sides, circular well, covered with splatters and sponging with a brown Rockingham glaze, Impressed mark on bottom of dish, “BOSTON EARTHEN/WARE/MANUF’G CO.” No number on bottom. Formerly part of the Burton N. Gates Collection. Boston Earthen Ware Manufacturing Company, also known as William F. Homer & Company, Boston, Massachusetts. According to Lura Woodside Watkins, in Early New England Potters, the Boston Earthen Ware Manufacturing Company was erected to compete with British pottery production. Started in East Boston in 1854 by Frederick Mear, an Englishman, he had previously engaged in the manufacture of yellow and Rockingham wares in partnership with James Salt and John Hancock at East Liverpool, Ohio, in a works founded by them in 1841. Mear superintended the Boston factory which was owned by William F. Homer, a Boston merchant. William F. Homer first advertised in the Boston Directory as the Boston Earthen Ware Manufacturing Company in 1854/55. During the first year 29 men were employed and $29,000 worth of ware was manufactured. Marked examples of "pudding dishes" (like this example) and cuspidors are known. In June 1857 Mear left his position and the pottery was leased by J. H. Lord and Company - who were still managing it in 1869. The name was changed to the East Boston Crockery Manufactory.
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