William

Pecker
A forgotten stoneware potter
from Merrimacport, Mass.
Justin Thomas
All photos by the author unless otherwise credited

illiam Pecker, the earthenware

potter from Merrimacport,
Mass, is well known in the
history of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury New England
pottery. But how about
William
Pecker,
the
stoneware
potter?
His
stoneware has received very
little attention in the scholarly
world. The only material written
on the subject is by John Kile
in Ceramics in America, 2004,
edited by Rob Hunter. That
article was written on the
basis of a two-gallon handled
crock stamped with Peckers
name (Wm Pecker) and
decorated with a perched bird
on a branch and a blooming
flower. The crock was found at a
Kentucky flea market more than
a decade ago. Ever since reading
that article, I have been fascinated
with the idea of Peckers stoneware
work. Was it experimental? Did he
travel to an established industry like
Charlestown, Mass. or New York City
to study and experiment with stoneware?
Or could he have actually manufactured
stoneware in Merrimacport and has history
possibly forgotten about this side of Peckers
lifes work?

Page 44 Antiques Journal August 2015

William Pecker 2-gallon

stoneware handled
crock with perched
bird decoration, found
at a Kentucky Flea
Market and published
in Ceramics in America
in 2004. Courtesy: Bill
Chapman

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An unbelievable
discovery
I wrote about the red kiln
bricks and red earthenware kiln
furniture that my nephew, Jason,
and myself discovered near
Peckers place of operation in
Merrimacport in the New England
Antiques Journal, October, 2013.
We have since returned to this
site to investigate more. Out of
mere curiosity, we investigated a
few hundred yards upriver from
our initial discovery. I am not sure
why, but I had a gut instinct that
we would find something there.
We were in search of any red
earthenware remains from Pecker
or the businesses that predated
or followed him after his death in
1820.
The two of us climbed
carefully down a steep hill that
recent erosion had transformed
from a sloping hillside into a cliff.
Our way down was hampered
by thick brush that made us
both victims of vicious thorns.
The cliff ended on the shore of
the Merrimac River. This area is
completely covered with water at
high tide but at low tide there is
a large stretch of beach. On this
particular day, it was mid-tide, so
there was a small area of beach
to walk around. We saw all sorts
of green plant life from the river
that covered the rock-lined shore.
It was also littered with all sorts
of debris from old logs and trees;
however, thats not all we saw. A
number of mature tree branches
full of green leaves hung over the
brackish water that made for a
beautiful setting. It reminded me
of some of the lakes in Maine that I
used to vacation at with my family
as a kid. As I looked up the hill,
I imagined the utilitarian pottery
businesses that once peered down
at where I was standing. This
area was home to at least three
consecutive potters businesses
in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries (Dodge Pottery, Pecker
Pottery and Chase Pottery).
I was amazed to find dozens
and dozens of stoneware sherds
at the base of the cliff. The forms
I have been able to make out
since first discovering this area
are crocks, jugs and tankards;
there may be other forms, but
unfortunately, I am as yet unable
to prove that. There was also
an abundance of stoneware

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kiln furniture and even slightly

oversized and oddly shaped
stoneware bricks. The bricks were
likely used for Peckers stoneware
kiln. I was astonished that such
important historical artifacts with
substantial information were lying
in plain sight, yet unnoticed.
It appears that Pecker owned
a large stretch of land that ran
adjacent to the Merrimac River
and the furthest point west
may have been the location of
his stoneware kiln sometime
between 1790 and 1820. My basis
for this interpretation is due to the
amount of stoneware evidence we
found that is not visible anywhere
else in Merrimacport today.
There was a small stretch,
probably 25 yards wide, where
all of the sherds appeared. We
could clearly see a variety of
stoneware styles that Pecker
used in his production. Some of
the sherds were decorated with
cobalt and some were not. The
sherds all seemed to have been
exposed from the hill that had
been battered by storms, but I
also question if Pecker discarded
his kiln waste directly into the
Merrimac River. The stoneware
sherds were found mixed in with
a variety of red earthenware
sherds, most of which appeared to
be from thickly potted utilitarian
crocks; although, we did discover
a couple of sherds in the form of
known Pecker Pottery redware
jugs. Interestingly, most of the red
earthenware glazes were colors
I have never seen attributed to
Pecker.
As we continued to look
around, the bright summer sunlight
sparkled on a sherd mixed in with
green sea grass a few inches below
the surface of the Merrimac River.
We both stood silently peering
down into the calm water. We
could see directly to the bottom.
The water was crystal clear; small
fish were swimming near the
sherd. I was really in awe of what
I saw. I quickly pulled the sherd
out of the water and I showed it
to my nephew as water dripped
from the stoneware sherd with a
familiar decoration. What we had
found was a sherd decorated with
the same bird motif as was that
crock discovered at a Kentucky
flea market and written about
in the 2004 issue of Ceramics in
America. What are the chances of

Left: William Pecker 2-gallon stoneware jug found in a House in

Wenham, Mass., in 2012. Right: William Pecker 1-gallon stoneware jug,
purchased from a Longtime New England stoneware collector in 2013.

Examples of William Peckers stoneware mark, found on six known

surviving examples of Pecker stoneware.

My nephew, Jason,fishing for stoneware sherds in Merrimacport,

Mass. at high tide, July, 2014.

August 2015 Antiques Journal Page 45

that happening?
In all, we found dozens of
examples of stoneware sherds,
some of which were decorated with
blue cobalt, and all of which were
salt glazed. Theres no doubt in my
mind that Pecker was more than a
red earthenware potter: He was also
a stoneware potter who had drawn
his inspiration from English and
German styles, similar to the work
of the stoneware potters Frederick
Carpenter and Jonathan Fenton in
Charlestown, Mass.

Known Pecker stoneware

Stoneware sherds and wasters found in the river at Merrimacport,

Mass. Likely related to William Pecker.

Sherd with bird decoration found in the Merrimac River in

Merrimacport, Mass. Very similar to the decoration on the Kentucky
crock, together with another sherd with a different type of incised
decoration.

I know of six surviving examples

of Pecker stoneware marked with
his name (Wm Pecker), including
the crock found in Kentucky.
Furthermore, a similar two-gallon
crock was discovered at a country
auction in New Hampshire a few
years back with a similar perched
bird on a branch and a flower
decoration. There are also four other
known signed jugs; one being a onegallon jug not marked with a gallon
number. Many stoneware potters in
New England around the turn of the
nineteenth century did not mark
one-gallon jugs. There are also two
two-gallon jugs, each marked with
a 2; one of which was found during
a house cleanout in Wenham, Mass.
in 2012. There is also a single threegallon jug known marked with a
3. All of these examples reside in
private collections today. My belief
is there may be some unmarked
examples without an attribution
today; however, that is something
else I have yet to prove.
Peckers
stoneware
style
and form appears to show a
Charlestown, Mass. influence, but
it is possible that Peckers influence
came directly from imported
European stoneware. However I
assume that due to the differences
in stoneware and red earthenware
production, Pecker must have
learned the secrets of producing
stoneware from an established
stoneware potter. The clays in
Merrimacport, Essex County (Mass.)
and southern New Hampshire were
not of the quality needed for proper
stoneware production so Pecker
likely contracted to have the proper
clay shipped to Merrimacport. Its
still a bit of a mystery to me if
the stoneware bricks used for the
kiln were made in Merrimacport

or were brought there. Importing

clay would have been expensive for
Pecker so his stoneware business
was possibly short-lived, but I have
no actual proof of that and the
sherds may suggest otherwise.

Perspective of Pecker
stoneware
William Peckers involvement
with the late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century stoneware in
coastal Massachusetts is still under
investigation. It is my suspicion that
his stoneware was sold in the same
areas as his red earthenware. Small
towns and cities in New Hampshire,
possibly southern Maine, Haverhill
and Newburyport in Massachusetts
and throughout Essex County
were probably his main markets.
The Boston-area was pretty much
dominated by stoneware products
made in Charlestown. Pecker may
have also viewed his stoneware as
a secondary product behind the red
earthenware business. From what
I have seen, all of the stoneware
forms and sherds correspond with
typical late eighteenth-century
stoneware products made in places
like Massachusetts, Connecticut and
New York adopting early English
and German styles as their models.
Peckers skill is rather unique for
most American utilitarian potters at
the turn of the nineteenth century.
It appears he was equally skilled
in stoneware and red earthenware
production. No matter the medium,
he appears to have mastered the
craft and its even more fascinating
that he appears to have conquered
the chemistry it takes to successfully
operate
stoneware
and
red
earthenware kilns simultaneously.
Very few potters in New England
understood the requirements and
skill it took to master such a dual
craft only a few decades after the
American Revolution. Its even
more fascinating considering that
Pecker was only a country-style
potter with possibly less financial
resources than many potters who
worked in urban industries in
the years around the turn of the
nineteenth century. William Pecker
should not only be remembered
today for his well-known talent
as a red earthenware potter he
should also be remembered for his
more recently discovered skill as a
stoneware potter.

Low tide on the shore of the Merrimac River in Merrimacport, Mass.,

December, 2014.

Page 46 Antiques Journal August 2015

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