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Frederick H. Norton
Continued from page 11
Museum of American History. I
suspect that Norton must have
acquired a group of wares
from the Peabody Pottery in
the 1920s, consisting of the
vase I purchased on Cape Cod,
the four objects he gifted to
the MFA and possibly the two
pieces in the Watkins collec-
tion at the Smithsonian.
Although soon after
Watkins’ book was released,
Norton wrote a pottery book of
his own that was published in
1956, titled “Ceramics for the
Artist Potter,” some of which
was perhaps based on infor-
mation Norton learned from
being a potter himself. In fact,
it was reported that Norton
had developed a superior
terra-cotta clay by the mid-
20th century. This superior clay
is probably the same used on
two large vases that I acquired
from Bornhofft in 2015, both
decorated with African ani-
mals. The MFA also owns a
great collection of skillfully
created earthenware made by
Norton that is decorated in
various vibrant colors, colors
that any American art potter
would have boasted about.
In some ways similar to the
research that Professor Norton
published at NASA Langley, he
also wrote some academic and
scholarship material about
ceramics that was published
through MIT. Much of this
applied to being a studio pot-
ter and creating artistic and
decorative pottery, which had
become fashionable, especial-
ly by some potters in Europe
and Japan. He also wrote about
the Martin Crafts Pottery in
Nashua, N.H., the Norton
Pottery in Worcester, and the
Exeter Pottery Works, among
other subjects.
I learned about the
whereabouts of a group of
19th-century earthenware bill-
heads from businesses in West
Sterling, Mass., and Dublin,
N.H., also known as Chesham
Village. These bills of receipt
were all cited by Watkins in
“Early New England Potters
and Their Wares” and were
just rediscovered in a collec-
tion of paperwork and books
from Norton’s estate. A lot of
Norton’s original research,
This is Professor Norton inside his studio at MIT in Cambridge, Mass.
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manuscripts, photography, as
well as writing and paperwork
from the Norton potteries in
Worcester and Bennington
were also identified.
But aside from that,
Norton contributed as an
archeologist, as well. He
recovered a great collection of
artifacts that should be noted
today from the original
Dogtown settlement in
Gloucester. The community
was settled about 1693 and
grew to more than 100 fami-
lies and 60 to 80 homes by
1750 through the American
Revolution. In the 20th centu-
ry, Norton uncovered all sorts
of artifacts around some of
the settlement’s 18th-century
foundations related to every-
day life, including various
types of red earthenware,
some decorated with slip.
Some of the pottery may have
been made locally at a busi-
ness owned by Daniel Bayley
(1729-92) in the 1750s, but
some of it may have been
imported from elsewhere in
Essex County or even the
Colonial industry in
Charlestown, Mass. The Sandy
Bay Historical Society in
Rockport, Mass., owns the
Dogtown artifacts today.
Professor Norton’s Legacy
Frederick Norton’s name
alone is easily recognizable
today due to the manufactur-
ing and creative success of
the late 18th- and 19th-centu-
ry potteries bearing his sur-
name in Worcester and
Bennington. But Norton
should really be recognized
for the remarkable pottery
that he manufactured at MIT
in the early 1900s. I am not
sure how much of this pottery
exists outside of the MFA, but
the accomplished beautiful
colored glazes are wonderful
to see.
But equally as much,
Norton was a brilliant physi-
cist who applied and tested
his gifted intelligence to the
field of ceramics, especially
studio pottery, and how
physics yielded a better
understanding of what was
actually taking place within
the makeup of clay, the form-
ing of clay, and how this all
reacted inside of the kiln.
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Photographs owned by Norton include (top) Moses Paige’s Pottery in Peabody, Circulation Coordinator
Mass., ca. 1880, and (bottom) the Exeter Pottery Works, about 1885, showing a Since 1983
horse-drawn pug mill.
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The collection of 19th-century billheads and paperwork from Dublin, N.H., West Sales Representative
Sterling, Mass., Worcester, Mass., and Bennington, Vt., was originally owned by Since 2015
Norton, many of which were cited by Lura Woodside Watkins in her 1950 book,
“Early New England Potters and Their Wares.” 1.800.800.1833
ext. 2561
There are many aspects of Antiques, February 1931. abair@engleonline.com
Norton’s life that intrigue me, “ “ “Clay: Why It Acts The
especially learning the pro- Way It Does.” Studio Potter,
gression of his career, and Winter 1975/76.
how he had the opportunity to “ “ “Ceramics for the Artist
Share your story ideas!
visit traditional working pot- Potter.” Boston: Addison
teries in the 1920s and ’30s. He Wesley Publishing Company, Karl Pass
must have been thrilled to see 1956. Editor
how some of these businesses Ring, Madelia Hickman. Since 2013
actually operated during the “Q&A Justin Thomas. Antiques
period. I would have loved to & the Arts Weekly, November 1.800.800.1833
have spoken with Professor 23, 2018. ext. 2540
Norton and met the working- Watkins, Lura Woodside. kpass@engleonline.com
class potters who he interact- “Early New England Potters and
ed with in his lifetime. Their Wares.” Cambridge, Mass.:
F038248
Harvard University Press, 1950.
Sources:
Chambers, Joseph R. “A
Century of Langley.” Hampton,
VA: National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, 2017. ANTIQUES & QUALITY FURNISHINGS
AUCTION
Norton, Frank H. & V.J. Duplin,
Jr. “The Osborn Pottery in Gonic,
New Hampshire.” The Magazine
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