Description:
In 1850 Martin Crafts sold the property and the pottery at the corner of Court and Main Street in Whately, MA, to James M. Crafts and left for Boston. In 1851 James M. Crafts was the owner of the pottery in Nashua and we assume he was delivering pottery to Martin Crafts in Boston. M. Crafts Boston marked stoneware is known. Martin Crafts' name is not listed under potters in Boston, and it probably means that he purchased or had various potters make ware for him for his retail business. In 1857, after six years in Boston, Martin Crafts returned home to Whately and used his father's stoneware works until Thomas Crafts' death in 1861. Martin moved to New Jersey with his wife and daughter and never returned to Whately. Straight-sided jug with tapering shoulders, narrow neck with rounded spout, flat base, and appllied strap handle; salt-glazed stoneware with applied cobalt blue slip decoration in a floral pattern design on the front of the jug below the stamp; floral pattern consists of two flowers - a stylized anthemion and leaves. The jug is stamped under the spout, "MARTIN CRAFTS/ BOSTON" and the interior of the jug is coated with a layer of Albany slip. Condition: the jug has a large and long hairline crack down the length of the jug and into the base that has been restored. Part of the decoration of the flowers is darker black due to a misfire in the kiln - perhaps being too close to an adjacent object in the kiln. The other flower has blue decoration that has run and blurred. The jug was probably made using a jolly.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.17 |
