Description:
Whitish-tan stoneware jug stamp-impressed "C. CRAFTS & CO / WHATELY MASS." with some cobalt blue in-fill, over a large blue flower or "iris" extending from a leafy stem. 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. The jug has a beveled base and straight sides continuing up approximately three-fourths of distance up and then curving in towards the lip. There is no volume mark on pot, but it is approximately 1 gallon. The circumferance of the top of the lip is less than that of the bottom of the lip; a heavily tooled line circumscribes the neck directly beneath the lip. The attached loop handle extends from the lip to the shoulder. The salt-glaze is thick; the interior is covered with Albany slip. The bottom has rows of incised grooves. The cobalt seems to have not bonded and burned because it was mixed with clay.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+78.077 |
