Description:
Thrown, salt-glazed gray-colored stoneware water cooler stamp-impressed "C. CRAFTS / WHATELY / 3" (for 3 gallons), in-filled in cobalt blue over a stylized blue floral spray over a bunghole near the base; and two small ear-shaped handles. The interior is coated with Albany slip. The cooler is very warped and not perfectly round at the top. These semi-ovoid or barrel-shaped vessels had a bunghole at the base and open top or, if covered, a filling hole; and were used to hold water, hard cider, beer, or in smaller sized, hard liquor. Caleb Crafts (1800-1854) worked with his older brother, Thomas Crafts (1781-1861) in Whately, leaving in 1834 to work in his brother-in-law Sanford S. Perry's stoneware works in West Troy, NY. In 1837, he left West Troy to work with his nephew Martin Crafts (1807-1880) in Portland, Maine, and moved to Nashua, New Hampshire, to manage the family firm from about 1843 to 1845. He returned to Whately in 1845, and ran the Whately business using "C. CRAFTS & CO.' and ""C. CRAFTS" from about 1848 to 1852/53 when ill health limited his activities.
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+2008.18.2 |
