Description:
Circular stoneware lid with a molded hunt scene around edge and a flattened disk finial, which came with the butter pot (HD 73.090.1) stamp-impressed "J.M. & T.S. CRAFTS / Whately. Mass. / 2." James Monroe Crafts (1817-after 1899) and Thomas Spencer Crafts (b.1825), two of 8 children of the potter Thomas Crafts (1781-1861), continued the family pottery business. In 1838, James was briefly the first manager of his father's new branch of stoneware works in Nashua, New Hampshire. In late 1841 or 1842, James returned to Crafts pottery in Whately, and produced pottery under his own name until he was joined by his brother, Thomas Spenser Crafts, using this "J.M. & T.S. CRAFTS / Whately. Mass" mark from about 1850 to 1851 when Thomas Spenser Crafts left for California to search for gold. At one time, it was thought that this circular lid did not match body and was placed in storage. However later further research suggests that the lid does match molded fragments found at pottery sites in Whately and Ashfield, and may indeed be original to the pot. The hunt scene appears to copy English decoration shown on an English hunting jug illustrated by David Graci.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location); Stoneware Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+73.090.2 |
