"Maritime" Ware

Click photo to enlarge Top Photo: "Maritime" ware bowl Bottom Photo: "Maritime" ware bowl with brown spattered decoration

• Type: Coarse earthenware
• Date range: c.1860-1900 (for large commercial potteries)
• Place of origin: Maritime provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick

Typical Maritime wares produced at large commercial potteries were often decorated with white slips under clear lead glazes giving a yellow appearance on the interior surface (see bottom photo). The white slip was often decorated with spatterings in different colours (commonly green or brown). Crude slip-trailed designs were also used. The exterior of bowls was often left unglazed, although pitchers, jars and jugs were sometimes covered with a basic lead glaze, sometimes coloured. Hollow containers, such as jars, were dipped upside down with the bases used as grips to hold the vessels thus leaving the lower portion unglazed.

The pottery made in the Maritimes consisted of dense, coarse red earthenware containers and utility wares. The most common vessel forms found are milk pans, bowls, jugs, pitchers and covered jars.

Small potteries were also producing wares in the Maritimes during the early 19th century and onward. An example of this type of operation would be the Halfyard Pottery in the Annapolis Valley area of Nova Scotia.

See Webster 1971: 97-103

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