Description:
Grey and tan-bodied ovoid stoneware jug stamp-impressed, "T. CRAFTS & CO / WHATELY / SOLD BY BOUTWELL & M. KEAN, NASHUA, N.H. / DEALERS IN ENGLISH & W. I. GOODS / HARD & HOLLOW / WARE & C & C" in-filled with cobalt blue.Thomas Crafts (1781-1861) was one of the most successful potters in Whately (a town just south of Deerfield). He started making glazed redware pottery in 1802, developing a succesful teapot business; he switched to salt-glazed stoneware in 1833 and was active until 1848, turning over the business to his sons.In 1838, the Crafts family built the first of the only three stoneware manufactureres in New Hampshire in Nashua on the Merrimack River. Thomas Crafts had been shipping wares to wholesalers in Nashua for years and decided to establish a local branch. His son, James Monroe Crafts (1817-after 1899), was the first manager (see HD 78.079 for a Nashua example); James' brother, Martin Crafts (1807-1880) took over in the summer of 1838. Henry Baldwin shows a similar jug, also made for Boutwell & Kean, which he thought was made in Nashua because of the style and awkward shape. The jug has a beveled base and sides curving outwards until approximately 1/2 of the distance up, and then curving in towards the lip. A heavily tooled line circumscribes the neck directly beneath the lip. The loop handle is attached to the spout and shoulder. The salt glaze is of a medium thickness; the interior is coated with Albany slip; the surface of the stoneware jug is extremely rough and pitted, possibly through the action of soluble salts (salts in clay migrate through clay when liquid, then recrystalize on surface) or efforts to remove a later coating of yellow paint. There is a 1/2 inch chip to the spout, a 6 inch hairline crack on the right hand side from the lip to the neck, and a 3/4 inch spall on the back side. The stamped label appears to be struck and then erased, perhaps a period mistake.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2003.50 |
