Description:
Martin Crafts of Whately, MA, left his hometown to pursue the stoneware potting business in Portland, Maine in 1834. Stoneware had been sold successfully in Maine, but it had not been made there prior to Martin Crafts' arrival. In 1835 Martin was joined by Eleazer Orcutt of Whately and he became a partner in the business. The partnership was not successful. Eventually Martin sold the business and property to his uncle Caleb Crafts and another potter named William Fives. Caleb Crafts, born on July 29, 1800, in Whately, Massachusetts, was a potter by trade. After William Fives and Caleb Crafts took over the pottery in 1837, they operated it successfully for several years under the name of Caleb Crafts and Co. An advertisement in the Portland Directory of 1841 described it as a stoneware manufactory having for sale such items as butter pots, flower pots, jugs, and pitchers, as well as fire brick, clay, and sand. The land and buildings were sold in 1843 to the Ocean Insurance Company. Caleb Crafts moved back to Whately and died in 1854. Ovoid, thrown, one gallon jug, with attached ribbed handle, gray color with Albany slip inside the jug, flat base with circular marks, surface of glaze is salt-glazed, bumpy, yet shiney, stamped under spout "C. CRAFTS & CO./ PORTLAND" (impression is faint), there are significant stains on the left hand side of the jug - large areas of darker gray staining, and a little scorching on the upper left hand shoulder.
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+2013.16.1 |
