Description:
Whitish-tan stoneware churn stamp-impressed mark "D. BELDING / WHATELY / 2" in-filled with cobalt blue, over two cobalt blue flowers joined by a single stem. David Belding (1813-1854) of Whately probably trained with Thomas Crafts (1781-1761), and returned to Whately in 1832 to join Walter Orcutt (1799-1854) in converting Thomas Crafts' redware works to a stoneware pottery. In 1837, Belding worked with Thomas's son Martin (1807-1880) in Portland, Maine. Belding is reported to have returned to Whately and assumed operations of Thomas Crafts stoneware manufactury by 1840, although this is not listed in the Whately tax records. In 1842, Thomas's son James Monroe Crafts (1817-after 1899) returned from Nashua, New Hampshire, to run his father's operations, and Belding married Thomas Crafts' daughter, Triphena who died six weeks after the November wedding. In 1845, Belding married Sybil Maria Hastings Stanley, and they moved from Whately to Ashfield in 1848. In 1849, David Belding joined Walter Orcutt in Ashfield, where Orcutt and Alvin Warner, "traders and co partners in trade," had sold a third share of their Ashfield property (just purchsed from the Guilford family) to Walter's nephew, John Luther Guilford, to finance building a stoneware factory. Their marks included "ORCUTT, GUILFORD & CO, / Ashfield. Mass." and "ORCUTT, GUILFORD CO." After Belding joined, they were listed in the 1849 Ashfield tax records as "Orcutt, Belding & Co., 3 horses, stock in trader $500"; their wares were marked "ORCUTT, BELDING & CO." In 1850, Walter Orcutt sold his 2/3 share in the stoneware factory to David Belding and his brother-in-law Wellington Hastings (b.1812); the Hastings & Belding pottery operated until 1854 when Belding died and the business failed. As insolvent debtors, their 2/3 interest in the land and pottery buildings were to sold George Washington Boyden (1830-1858) who joined Staats D. Van Loon to manufacture stoneware as "VAN LOON & BOYDEN. / Ashfield, Mass"; that business failed in 1856. The churn has a tall, tapering, cylindrical form with flared rim that supported a cover (cover missing); two attached C-shaped lug handles; an incised line around the neck passing through the middle of the handles; and beveled base with rows of incised grooves. There is cobalt blue on the body where the front ends of the handles are attached to the body; the salt glaze is orange-peel like and thick on the front side of the body but of medium thickness on the back side; there are drops of green glaze on the front and sides of the body; and the interior is covered with Albany slip. There are long facets continuing down the middle part of the body, which are the result of the potter shaving off excess clay, and a depression on the left side of the body. A possible fracture has occured from frozen liquid inside the churn.
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); Stoneware Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+78.023 |
