FREDERICK CARPENTER - A LIFE'S JOURNEY

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AS IT IS WITH SO MANY GREAT AND LEGENDARY POTTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, MANY WERE TRAINED AT AN EARLY AGE IN CONNECTICUT. SITTING JUST ACROSS THE LONG ISLAND SOUND FROM NEW YORK CITY, CONNECTICUT WAS SETTLED VERY EARLY IN OUR COLLECTIVE HISTORY. TOWNS LIKE NORWALK, GREENWICH AND HARTFORD BORE SOME OF THE GREATEST POTTERS OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY AS AMERICA MOVED AWAY FROM THE CITY AND SETTLED AMERICA.

NEW HAVEN IS A BEAUTIFUL TOWN AND SITUATED ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST, RIGHT ON LONG ISLAND SOUND AND IS HOME TO YALE UNIVERSITY. IN THE LAST HALF OF THE 1700'S, NEW HAVEN WAS ALSO THE HOME TO A POTTERY OWNED AND OPERATED BY NATHAN AND SOLOMON FENTON, EARLIEST OF RECORD, AND THEN BY JACOB FENTON, AROUND THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY. IT WAS AT THIS POTTERY THAT FREDERICK CARPENTER WOULD WORK ALONG SIDE THE OWNERS SON, JONATHAN FENTON. THE TWO YOUNG MEN, FENTON AND CARPENTER, ENDED UP SHARING A DREAM. BOTH EXTREMELY TALENTED AND WELL TRAINED IN MAKING STONEWARE, AND WITH SOME HELP FROM A FENTON FAMILY FRIEND, THE FUNDING WAS PROVIDED. THE TWO MEN WOULD BOTH EVENTUALLY WORK THEIR OWN POTTERY, ON LYNN ST. IN BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS. THIS POTTERY "THE LYNN ST. POTTERY" IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST AMERICAN DOCUMENTED STONEWARE POTTERIES. IT WAS IN THE 1790'S WHEN THESE MEN WORKED IN BOSTON.

FENTON WAS OF GERMANIC DECENT. THIS, TODAY SEEMS LIKE A TRIVIAL AND BY SOME STANDARDS A BIAS NOTATION, BUT IN THE 1790'S IT MEANT SOMETHING. FENTON CARRIED OUT HIS ANCESTRAL TRAINING PASSED TO HIM BY JUST A GENERATION OR SO BEFORE HIM WHO HAD ARRIVED ON AMERICAN SHORES. DISTINCT BODY LINES, ACCURATE APPLICATION OF INCISING AND COBALT GLAZING. A VERY "CORRECT" MANNER OF THIS EARLY AGE IN AMERICA OF "PRIMITIVE STONEWARE".

CARPENTER WAS OF ENGLISH DECENT AND MADE HUGELY OVOID SHAPED FORMS AND USED OCHER OR FERRUGINOUS GLAZE TO DIP, NOT PAINT, HIS STONEWARE. HIS HANDLES SAT, LOOPED BRIEFLY ATOP THE UPPER SHOULDER ON JUGS AND HIS CROCKS WIDE AND OPEN IN A MORE DRASTIC OVOID FORM. THESE EARLY CARPENTER PIECES ARE UTILITARIAN AND LESS "CORRECT" BUT IN THAT PRIMITIVE LOOK, LIES GREAT BEAUTY.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, THERE IS NO RECORD OF ONE EXAMPLE OF STONEWARE BEARING FREDERICK CARPENTER'S NAME.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THESE TWO MEN, IN THIS VERY SHORT TIME PERIOD, COULD HAVE BEEN AT LYNN ST. WORKING TOGETHER, OR POSSIBLY AT DIFFERENT TIMES. BOTH POTTERS MARKED THE STONEWARE WITH IDENTIFIABLE STAMPS WHICH READ "BOSTON", ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. THE LETTERS APPEAR TO BE TYPEFACE WHICH WERE USED, WORN LETTERS, NO LONGER USEFUL FOR PRINTING ON PAPER, BUT WELL SERVED FOR THIS APPLICATION. THEY WERE ACQUIRED MOST LIKELY FROM A LOCAL NEWSPAPER AND LOOK TO HAVE BEEN MOUNTED IN SOME MANNER TO MAKE A STAMP OF SORTS. THE MAKER STAMP HAD SOME EXCEPTIONS WITH FENTON USING A FISH, A CARTOUCHE OF HIS INTIALS AND OTHER RARE EXCEPTIONS. CARPENTER EXAMPLES HAVE BEEN FOUND WITH A QUATREFOIL, HEARTS AND ALSO OTHER RARE EXCEPTIONS.

SOMETIME JUST BEFORE THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY, JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS AFTER THE START AT LYNN ST., THE POTTERY WAS CLOSED.

CARPENTER THEN MOSTLY VANISHED FOR A FEW YEARS AND THERE IS NO CONFIRMED RECORD OF HIS WHEREABOUTS. IT HAS BEEN SAID, HE MAY HAVE RETURNED TO WORK FOR JACOB FENTON IN NEW HAVEN OR THAT HE WORKED FOR THE DUTCH POTTERS, STATES FAMILY, BUT NOTHING IS DOCUMENTED. 

CARPENTER THEN REAPPEARS IN THE RECORDS AT CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, A WATERFRONT SECTION OF BOSTON, AS A POTTERT OWNER IN 1801. HIS POTTERY AND KILN WERE LOCATED ON THE MYSTIC RIVER AND CARPENTER WOULD WORK THERE FOR ABOUT TEN YEARS. MOST OF THESE STONEWARE EXAMPLES ARE MARKED WITH "Boston" SHOWING A CAPITAL LETTER TO THE STAMP, WITH THE REST OF THE LETTERS IN LOWER CASE. GIVEN THE EARLY DATE OF ALL THIS, THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THIS AS WELL.

IN 1812 FREDERICK CARPENTER WENT TO WORK FOR THE NEW BARNABAS EDMANDS POTTERY IN CHARLESTOWN AS MASTER POTTER. IN HIS NEW ASSIGNMENT, HE MAKES STONEWARE WITH THE IMPRINT "CHARLESTOWN" ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. DURING THIS PERIOD, CARPENTER USED A SERIES OF INCISED FIGURAL STAMPS, AT TIMES TO ACCOMPANY THE CHARLESTOWN STAMP, WHICH INCLUDED, HEARTS, EAGLES, SHIELDS, STARS, BANNERS AND TASSLES. THERE ARE ESTIMATES OF SOME SEVENTEEN KNOWN STAMPS HE USED DURING HIS TIME AT EDMANDS.

IN 1827, FREDERICK CARPENTER PASSED AWAY EARLY, LEAVING THE WORLD WITH A LIFETIME OF TREASURED STONEWARE. FOR MANY YEARS UP UNTIL THE 1950'S HIS WORK WENT ON UNDOCUMENTED AND UNDERVALUED. THE RESEARCH OF CARPENTERS LIFE IS LARGELY DUE TO EFFORTS OF LURA WOODSIDE WATKINS IN THE 1950'S, WHO DEDICATED MUCH EFFORT AND TIME, TO THE TASK OF FINDING OUT WHO THIS PERSON WAS AND WHAT HE HAD ACHIEVED. IN LATER YEARS, WILLIAM KETCHUM JR. DID WONDERFUL RESEARCH ON CARPENTER AND RECENTLY NEW FACTS HAVE BEEN UNCOVERED BY A LOCAL HISTORIAN. TODAY FREDERICK CARPENTER STONEWARE IS REVERED BY COLLECTORS AND LOVED BY ALL WHO READ HIS STORY OF AMERICAN DETERMINATION.

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