Stoneware of the Eastern United States by Mark Zipp Introduction Jugs, Pitchers, Butter and Cake Crocks Vessel Was Thrown

Bottles and Extras March-April 2008 29 Stoneware of the Eastern United States By Mark Zipp Introduction jugs, pitchers, butter and cake crocks vessel was thrown. Much like the different Gaining popularity in the late (shallow, cylindrical forms), milk pans schools of painting and furniture-making eighteenth century and rapidly declining in (shallow, tapering crocks with spouts), and in America, there were, in a sense, different production by 1900, salt-glazed stoneware spittoons. Salt-glazed stoneware potteries schools of potting. Some of these schools was one of America’s great containers of existed from Maine to Virginia, extending of style, which will be discussed, are New common household goods. as far west as Ohio and Minnesota. Other York and New England, Central Whether it be a pitcher for cream, a potteries operating in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania, crock for lard, a jug for whiskey, or a Georgia and other Southern states, Baltimore, and Strasburg, Virginia. chamberpot for the bedroom, a single produced alkaline and some salt-glazed household could require many pieces for ware. Stoneware reached its maximum New York and New England daily life. Today, what was once respected production among the Eastern potteries The Northern potteries of New York for its utilitarian function has now become circa 1880. state and New England produced highly admired among collectors for its decorative The early years of American stoneware, refined stoneware with a whitish clay, appeal and historical significance. circa 1750 to 1810, will not be discussed glossy salt glaze and bright cobalt blue. Stoneware is a term used to describe in this article. Though several pieces of Generally, Northern stoneware contains less pottery which has been fired in a kiln at a this period, particularly by the Crolius and imperfections and firing flaws than that high temperature, approximately 2,300 Remmey families of Manhattan, represent produced in the South. The clean, light degrees Fahrenheit, and which has some of the most important examples of color of the clay and vibrant blue on hardened to a stone-like body. The resultant American folk art, this article will primarily many of these pieces makes them seem, clay color can be anywhere from nearly focus on the years when stoneware potting at least to the untrained eye, nearly white to dark brown or dark olive. was a successful enterprise throughout indistinguishable from modern Stoneware, even when fired to a reddish much of the East. The potteries referred to reproductions. This resemblance is partly hue, is not to be confused with “redware,” in this article roughly pertain to the time due to the industrialization of such which has a porous, softer body, and which period 1850 to 1880. businesses. Many of the Northern is fired at a lower temperature. stoneware operations were quite large, with Most pieces of stoneware, after being Values numerous workers and high quality clay thrown on a wheel, were stamped with a Value in stoneware is based on three and equipment, which translated into maker’s mark, as well as a capacity mark major criteria: the decoration, maker and massive outputs. They should be viewed 1 to indicate gallonage, such as 1, 1 /2, 2 or form of the vessel. As with any collectible, more as factories, which had become more 3. They were then allowed to air dry and condition also plays a major role, with standardized in their production than harden as “greenware.” After drying, each cracks, chips and broken parts decreasing potteries in the South. piece would be decorated with cobalt oxide, the value of a quality example by several Most Northern pieces, besides being a compound which, when fired with salt, hundred, perhaps several thousand, dollars. glazed on the exterior with cobalt and salt, produced a bright blue coloration. [Some Above all, decoration is the most defining were also glazed on the interior with a dark potters, such as Henry Glazier of factor in a piece of stoneware’s worth, with brown “Albany slip.” This thick coating Huntingdon, Pa., and George N. Fulton of rare decorations, like people and animals, kept food products from soaking into the Allegheny County, Va., used manganese for making a piece most desirable. The value body of the vessel. Most common among their decorations, which, when fired, of a piece also fluctuates based on whether stoneware forms thrown by Northern produced a rusty brown color. Most or not it is signed. Signatures always potters are semi-ovoid cream jars, straight- manganese-decorated stoneware is increase the value of a piece. Even sided jugs with thick, round spouts and considered rare.] Brushes or occasionally attributing an unsigned piece to a given straight-sided crocks, of similarly slip cups, funnel-like instruments that maker based on its style can make it worth proportioned heights and widths. poured the cobalt in fine, raised trails, were more. The form of the vessel also plays a Northern potters, particularly those used to decorate the exterior of the vessels. role in value and desirability, with less from Upstate New York, produced Decorating through the use of a slip cup is commonly produced items, like banks, stoneware with perhaps the greatest variety known as slip-trailing. The load of ware water coolers and inkwells being some of of decorations among all makers operating would then be stacked in a kiln to be fired, the most sought after. in nineteenth century America. Besides with each piece separated by crude or standard flower and bird decorations, they molded kiln furniture. When the kiln Areas of Collecting also made pieces with hand-painted reached the desired temperature, a kilnman Most stoneware enthusiasts collect by animals, such as dogs, cats, fish, and would shovel salt inside. The salt would region, seeking pieces of a certain style horses, as well as people, faces, houses, vaporize and fuse to the surfaces of the made in a certain geographic region. The ships, flags, and numerous others. vessels, resulting in an impenetrable, glass- vast number of potteries of the Eastern U.S. Northern makers utilized slip-trailing like coating over a blue decoration. can be divided into various subgroups based techniques on many of their pieces, which Commonly produced stoneware forms of on their stylistic differences, such as clay allowed for greater detail, and an overall the nineteenth century include jars, crocks, color, and decoration used, and how the more artistic rendering. 30 March-April 2008 Bottles and Extras Although nearly all New York potters Central Pennsylvania a long-nosed face, flanked on the edge by from about 1850 to 1890 produced To the east, potteries in Central leaves. Currently, among the Central stoneware with similar cobalt motifs, many Pennsylvania, such as Cowden & Wilcox Pennsylvania marks, pieces marked makers are known for certain unique of Harrisburg, M & T Miller of Newport, “COWDEN & WILCOX” remain the most decorations that they solely developed and Evan R. Jones of Pittston, and Sipe and Son collectible. This is probably due to the sheer which they are now known for among of Williamsport, produced light-colored, variety and high quality of the decorations collectors. Potter Thompson Harrington of brightly-decorated ware similar to that of of this partnership’s ware. Some superior Lyons is admired for his “star face” potters in the North. Makers of this region examples of Cowden and Wilcox stoneware decoration, which consists of a small, slip- most often produced jug and cream jar include those decorated with a Union trailed face surrounded by several jagged forms, usually in the one to three gallon soldier’s bust, a cow, a horse head, as well rays of cobalt. Havana potter A.O. size. In addition, Central Pennsylvania as a variety of bird decorations. Whittemore, perhaps more than any potters produced a form known as the batter American maker, produced crocks pail, an ovoid vessel with a tubular spout Western Pennsylvania decorated with slip-trailed houses, in the front and a wire handle over the top. Potters in Western Pennsylvania underlined with waves, and occasionally This form is also found, on occasion, in typically made vessels in the form of small flanked by palm trees. John Burger of the work of Northern potters with sparse canning jars up to lug-handled, twenty- Rochester made pieces decorated with game cobalt decoration. Those from Central gallon crocks. The clay they used, when birds, detailed on the breast, head and back, Pennsylvania are usually heavily decorated, fired, was usually darker and denser than with numerous dots of cobalt. Noah White attractive examples of stoneware and are that of the Northern factories, ranging from of Utica commonly decorated his pots with very desirable. a medium gray to a dark brown. Unlike “paddle-tailed birds,” song birds with long, Most common among Central makers in surrounding areas, Western rounded tails heavily filled with cobalt. Pennsylvania stoneware motifs are brush- Pennsylvania potters used metal stencils, In such cases, the decorations are so decorated representations of flowers and punched with the name of their company distinctive an expert can identify the maker leaves, though local potters occasionally and town of origin, to decorate the front of of a piece without reading the maker’s decorated pieces with grapes, birds, animals their ware. Their companies’ names would mark. In other cases, decorations are more and people. Central Pennsylvania potters be accented with brush-decorated flourishes characteristic of the style of the region, rarely slip-trailed the cobalt onto their and other stenciled designs, from simple rather than a specific maker. The vessels. Pieces with such a treatment are swags and geometric patterns to detailed similarities between stoneware pieces considered rare and desirable. One motif fruit, eagles, and, in very rare cases, tavern produced in various towns, extending from prized by collectors is the so-called “man- scenes.

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