Description:
Tan-bodied stoneware jug stamp-impressed "HASTINGS & BELDING, ASHFIELD, MASS" in-filled with cobalt blue, over a blue floral sprig with a dot of blue above both flowers. David Belding (1813-1854) of Whately probably trained with Thomas Crafts (1781-1761), and returned to Whately in 1832 to join Walter Orcutt (1799-1854) in converting Thomas Crafts' redware works to a stoneware pottery. In 1837, Belding worked with Thomas's son Martin (1807-1880) in Portland, Maine. Belding is reported to have returned to Whately and assumed operations of Thomas Crafts stoneware manufactury by 1840, although this is not listed in the Whately tax records. In 1842, Thomas's son James Monroe Crafts (1817-after 1899) returned from Nashua, New Hampshire, to run his father's operations, and Belding married Thomas Crafts' daughter, Triphena who died six weeks after the November wedding. In 1845, Belding married Sybil Maria Hastings Stanley, and they moved from Whately to Ashfield in 1848. In 1849, David Belding joined Walter Orcutt in Ashfield, where Orcutt and Alvin Warner, "traders and co partners in trade," had sold a third share of their Ashfield property (just purchsed from the Guilford family) to Walter's nephew, John Luther Guilford, to finance building a stoneware factory. Their marks included "ORCUTT, GUILFORD & CO, / Ashfield. Mass." and "ORCUTT, GUILFORD CO." After Belding joined, they were listed in the 1849 Ashfield tax records as "Orcutt, Belding & Co., 3 horses, stock in trader $500"; their wares were marked "ORCUTT, BELDING & CO." In 1850, Walter Orcutt sold his 2/3 share in the stoneware factory to David Belding and his brother-in-law Wellington Hastings (b.1812); the Hastings & Belding pottery operated until 1854 when Belding died and the business failed. As insolvent debtors, their 2/3 interest in the land and pottery buildings were to sold George Washington Boyden (1830-1858) who joined Staats D. Van Loon to manufacture stoneware as "VAN LOON & BOYDEN. / Ashfield, Mass"; that business failed in 1856. The jug has a round lip; tooled line around the neck just below the lip; sloping shoulders amd straight sides; applied strap handle; and beveled base. The interior is covered with Albany slip.
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