Robert Hunter
The Eighteenth-Century Stoneware of Ashbel Wells Jr. of Hartford, Connecticut, Revealed

Ceramics in America 2021

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Storage jar, Ashbell Wells, Hartford, Connecticut, ca. 1787–1793. Salt-glazed stoneware. H. 10 1/4". (Private collection; photo, Robert Hunter.) This one-gallon ovoid jar displays the impressed mark “A:WELLS”  in large block letters on both sides. 

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Detail of the mark on the jar illustrated in fig. 1.

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Plan of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, from a survey made in 1824; surveyed and published by Daniel St. John and Nathaniel Goodwin; engraved by Asaph Willard. (Courtesy, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.) 

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Detail of the map illustrated in fig. 3 showing the suspected location of Ashbel Wells’s property located east of Front Street. Note the name of the street is given as Pottery Lane, although it was also called Potter's Lane.

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Advertisement published in the Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), July 8, 1783, p. 2. This is perhaps the earliest indication of Ashbel Wells’s activities as a store owner and ceramics merchant.  

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Advertisement from the Hartford Courant, January 20, 1784, p. 4. 

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Advertisement from the Hartford Courant, October 22, 1787, p. 1.

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Advertisement from the Hartford Courant, January 7, 1788, p. 3. 

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Advertisement from the Hartford Courant, September 15, 1794 p. 2. 

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Bottom of the jar illustrated in fig. 1 showing a large circular scar resulting from the stacking technique in the kiln. 

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    A detail of the jar illustrated in fig. 1 showing the reddish brown slip used to coat the interior.

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Storage jar, attributed to William Seaver, Taunton, Massachusetts, ca. 1790–1800. Salt-glazed stoneware. H. 11 3/4". (Currier Museum of Art, Gift of Lew Sherburne Cutler, 1943.1.38.) This ovoid jar displays the impressed mark “TAUNTON” in large block letters on both sides.