Description:
The Saffords were among the more talented 19th-century earthenware potters in Maine. They held their ware in sufficiently high regard to attach their name to it; the Saffords not only impressed their name in a conspicuous place on the ware, but in some cases, indicated the use for which the piece was intended, e.g. "stew pot." This object is not marked. Fragments excavated from the Safford pottery in Monmouth, ME are located at the Maine State Museum. Cylindrical, thrown, bulbous jar with notched lip to receive a lid, no lid survives with the pot, the pot has a rounded rim, underdercut neck, tapering shoulders, and a wider belly area, the pot tapers to a flared foot rim, the pot is decorated in a mustard-yellow colored glaze with a pinkish hue over a red body, underneath the rounded lip there are five grooves or lines incised into the neck of the pot, the same five incised lines or grooves also decorate with shoulder of the pot, the underside of the base is unglazed, there is an incised number on the base "268?" and the number "10" in black marker; this is an unusual redware jar, Condition: excellent condition, some glaze loss to the top rim, a couple of chips to the foot rim, Origin: attributed to Safford Pottery, Monmouth, Maine. M. Lelyn Branin, Early Potters and Potteries of Maine, - image of a jug with similar incised rings and impressed "John Safford" in the Monmouth Museum collection. See Chapter 21, pp. 148-157. Two similarly shaped jars with incised lines are in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village, one with handle and impressed mark, "JOHN SAFFORD/ STEW POT No. 3" and "940" on the bottom - 87.2.1; the other example is inscribed "218" on the bottom.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2013.7.23 |
