Description:
Tan-bodied stoneware jug stamp-impressed "ASHFIELD, MASS", in-filled with cobalt blue, over a large dark, interlaced abstract design similar to the interlaced handles on contemporary silver and pewter porringers. The brief period of stoneware production in Ashfield involved the following people. Walter Orcutt (1799-1854) and his brother Eleazer Orcutt (b.1796), sons of Whately potter Stephen Orcutt (1777-1821), probably moved to Vermont with their family in 1817, and later worked as potters in Troy, New York, where they moved around 1823. Walter seems to have left Troy in the summer of 1824, and probably continued as a potter in NY's Hudson Valley pottery area (although his second child may have been born in Conway in 1825). Walter left NY in 1832 to return to Whately to convert Thomas Crafts' redware works to a stoneware pottery, and where he was joined by David Belding (1813-1854) who was born in Whately and had also been working in NY. In 1840, Walter Orcutt was listed in the census as living in Conway, and appears in the 1847 Ashfield town records in which he is listed in partnership with Alvin Warner and taxed for a "house and store, with stock in trade worth $900 dollars." In 1848, Orcutt and Warner, "traders and co partners in trade," sold a third share of the 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." Eleazer Orcutt also worked there, and may have been a member of the firm. In November 1842, David Belding had married Thomas Crafts' daughter, Triphena who died six weeks after the wedding; in 1845, Belding married Sybil Maria Hastings Stanley, and they moved from Whately to Ashfield in 1848. David Belding joined Orcutt, and are 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); their pottery operated until 1854 when Belding died and the business failed. As insolvent debtors under the name of Hastings & Belding, their 2/3 interest in the land and pottery buildings (John Luther Guildford kept his 1/3 interest) were to sold George Washington Boyden (1830-1858) who joined Staats D. Van Loon to manufacture stoneware as "VAN LOON & BOYDEN. / Ashfield, Mass." Their business failed in 1856. Both Baldwin and Graci show stoneware stamp-impressed "HASTING & BELDING / Ashfield" with similar blue abstract decoration. The jug has a round lip, tooled line around the neck just below the lip; sloping shoulders and straight sides; applied coil handle; and beveled base with rows of incised grooves on the bottom. The interior is covered with Albany slip.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+79.032 |
