The Art of Stoneware
Before the days of giant grocery stores, disposable blister packs and plastic wrap, stoneware jugs, jars and churns served as the utilitarian containers needed by a growing country. Although most stoneware wasn’t intended to be viewed as art, today's collectors value it as just that. As much as $148,000 reportedly has been paid for a single piece of stoneware: A unique, heart-shaped inkwell with fancy decoration, signed on the bottom "William Crolius, New York, July 12, 1773."
Stoneware vessels were made in many parts of this country in several forms. Stoneware jugs and crocks, numerous in every household for most of the 19th century, were for storing pickled vegetables, beer, vinegar, and other such foods. Stoneware is non-porous, does not react to acids-as lead glazed redware does, occasionally causing lead poisoning, and its thick walls make for good insulation.
Anthony Duche, who probably introduced the "hard" pottery into this country around 1720, mostly made chamber pots. The egg or ovoid shaped stoneware was among the earliest, with straight-sided containers coming later, after 1928. Most of the pieces were turned on a potter's wheel and placed in a kiln for firing. The Encyclopedia of Collectibles reports that hand-fashioned stoneware was made until about 1890 when it was replaced by machine-produced wares.
Salt-glazed stoneware was one of the most common types of pottery used in early America. The glaze was formed by putting salt into the kiln when it reaches about 2000° Fahrenheit. At that temperature, the salt explodes, and the vaporized sodium reacts with the silica in the clay, thereby glazing the stoneware. The salt glazing step always takes place after decoration, if any, is made. Therefore, any stoneware piece with washable blue or incise scratching through the glaze is highly suspect.
Again, pottery was made not as a work of art but for daily use. It has been variously called cottage, peasant, folk, naive, and country.
Along with the Victorian era came an advancement of technology and the use of patterned molds. This molded ware was the next generation of stoneware. The Collector's Encyclopedia of Salt Glaze Stoneware refers to the golden era of molded stoneware, when it dominated the everyday household market, from about 1890 until the mid-1930's.
As with other collecting fields, stoneware collectors have their own criteria for selecting which type of stoneware to buy. A piece of stoneware is usually evaluated on the basis of its form, maker's mark, decoration and condition. A specific type of decoration, such as birds, flowers, or script, may be one collector focus. Some collectors seek only cobalt blue decorated stoneware. Others, however, may decide to focus on the works of a certain firm, a specific potter, or a region.
Some stoneware decorations are easier to locate than others are. Swirls and geometric designs are most commonly found. Flowers, birds, animals and scenes (ships, houses, trees) are not as common. People are extremely rare.
Also note that the earliest types of decoration (to 1930) were incised on the pieces. Generally, from 1840 to 1925, American stoneware potters brushed or stenciled on the decoration.
As the supply of decorated crocks, churns and jugs from New York, Pennsylvania and New England has diminished over the past years, many collectors have turned to the more affordable and available late nineteenth-century pieces from Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana. |
