Happy Thanksgiving 2016

 This Post is repeated from Nov 22 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends who read here.   This is a time to be thankful for so many blessings.  Among these I am thankful my pretty kitchen and think of how Jackie worked hard to leave me in a safe sweet home when he knew he could not stay here long.  Of course we built our red cape with the hope it would be our forever home on this earth, but that was not to be.  So see what a pretty kitchen we made in this modern little garden home where I am grateful to be. 
We used his pottery collection as a theme in the kitchen and all surfaces were planned to compliment the redware and stoneware.

 Onions are gathered in a fine Redware bowl we believe was made in Maine. These onions are in two of my paintings. The counter top makes a strong statement and was not a choice for the faint of heart! 

See the rich and varied glaze on this early Boston marked piece.

This very sought after stoneware is the work of Frederick Carpenter, and Jack collected at least twenty of these pots.  The earlier is marked Boston then the pottery moved across the river and was afterwards marked Charlestown.

Now I have six of my recent paintings hanging in here, and have just finished making a peach cobbler pie for our family Thanksgiving dinner.  All four generations will be there at Daughter Beth's and it will be one to please Norman Rockwell. 

 Friend Dixie went to considerable trouble to secure and travel to pick up and then mail the little ship model from an auction in Maine last month. It is a one off home made model of an actual working fishing vessel I believe.  See that tiny wooden ball on top of the center mast? I lost that in a huge box of peanut packing and it took two hours and three passes through it all to recover the little bit of wood!

Langhorn's Tavern in Virginia was owned by my ancestor Maurice Langhorn. 

Footnote: I have had email from a new reader here, a person very knowledgeable  about early American pottery. He has a great blog on the subject:  http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/ 
This is wonderful reading!    Go look.     Best, e

Four Early Hartford Connecticut Stoneware Pots in a Texas Kitchen

this post has been repeated from August 4th, 2012

As a fan of early 19^th century American stoneware it was exciting to come across a large shapely three gallon crock with an unfamiliar name on it, Peter Cross Hartford, at a local show way down here in the Texas Hill Country. The large open mouth vessel had all of the earmarks of a very early piece: ovoid form, some scars from the kiln as well as extra details around the neck. I estimated the date of manufacture at around 1815 because of those features. Needless to say I added it to my collection. I was able to find it in my reference books (before I had Google) and see that Peter Cross operated a pottery from 1805 until about 1815 in two locations on Front St. in Hartford. Not many of his marked pieces have survived and are quite sought after.

Peter Cross sold his first pottery location in 1810 to Goodwin and Webster and opened another that he sold in 1815 to Benton and Stewart. They employed a potter named Daniel Goodale jr. who later bought the pottery in 1822. Goodale made pottery there until 1830 when Goodwin and Webster took over that pottery as well.

My Benton and Stewart jug was found at Brimfield and came with the story that those were the names of two retired sea captains that decided to go into the stoneware business. It was pleasantly ovoid shaped and had a series of rings around its neck which pretty much dates it 1820 or earlier. My research did show that they were indeed retired sea captains. Sometimes the story does match up with the facts. Very few pieces with that mark show up.

The Goodale crock was also found at Brimfield on another trip. It appears to retain its original lid which is unusual and features a nice bulbous form and Hartford mark which appealed to me.

The Goodwin and Webster pot was found in one of our favorite shops in Willington Connecticut. Although not rare, pots turned out by Goodwin and Webster are usually shapely and stylish. They were probably the most successful of the early Connecticut potters.

All four of our pots are related and were made in close proximity to one another, a fact that I didn’t realize when I bought them. I think it only fitting that they now sit side by side although they are many miles from Hartford.    Jack

Boston Stoneware collection

this article is reposted from Feb 25 2012
The house we were living in was a modern two story stone.  In May 2012 we moved into our smaller garden home, meaning tiny yards, and I am still comfortable here with a crowded but serviceable studio space for painting.

While shopping at an antique flea market in New Hampshire one fall morning, I noticed a very shapely piece of stoneware that was painted white. I inquired about the jug and the dealer showed me where he had scraped the paint away from the name and some imprinted designs on the neck and said it was from Charlestown and very collectable. I passed on the jug but that piqued my curiosity about the subject. Most of our customers and my wife liked the grey stoneware with the blue decoration, flowers, birds, and leafy designs, while I was becoming more attracted to the early forms that used very little blue, often just a bit to highlight the maker’s name or city and sometimes around the handle.
These ovoid forms just talked to me. Often they had incised rings around the neck and sometimes on the shoulder of the piece and displayed imperfections in the glaze and body from the crude kilns and erratic firings, all of which showed the handwork involved in their making. On our return from the trip I started to research Charlestown pottery and discovered that Charlestown was across the river from Boston and was the home of Bunker Hill, site of our first big battle with the British in the Revolutionary War. According to our reference books, the Charlestown marked pottery was the product of a potter originally from Connecticut named Frederick Carpenter who started in the business in Boston in 1793 with a partner, Jonathan Fenton. That business lasted only a few years. Pottery produced during this 18th century period was marked Boston with a B the same size as the other letters. Carpenter tried again in 1803 with a new backer and marked his wares Boston with a large B and later Charlestown. After 1812 the Boston mark was no longer used and Charlestown was the mark until Carpenter’s death in 1827. Many wonderful pieces with these marks survived…….The pieces often had stamped designs under the town name instead of a stamped 2 or 3 to indicate the capacity in gallons. Hearts, chevrons with tassels, eagles over cannons, crosses are just some of the designs used . Often the pieces were dipped in a brown glaze top and bottom in the style of English stoneware of that time. The glaze often ran or was mottled and variegated and this effect adds to the pottery’s charm.
During 1804 a few of the pieces were stamped Boston 1804. Pride was taken in the fact that these wares were made in this country and not imported. One article written in the 1950’s said only ten pieces with this marking, Boston 1804, were known to the author. I have personally seen six or seven pieces on the market for sale with this date, so am sure there were more than ten survivors, but still they are quite rare. Enjoy the photos from my collection which I hope show some of the appeal of the pottery……Jack

Cloth children AKA big rag dolls to hug

Elaine McNally and I have made a group of dolls, so far 15 of these children, inspired by Izannah dolls.  Elaine made the cloth masks on a sculpt I did in 1990, using it as a drape mold. The body pattern and paint are mine on most. Elaine used considerable skill, sometimes adding bits of clay between the layers of the masks.  A few of them were painted by Elaine, and one has my paint on a mask made from Elain's sculpt. So they are a true collaboration. The dolls are numbered, dated and signed. If Elaine's name is first that means she painted the doll. If my name is first, I painted it.   This past Friday Elaine came for a photo shoot visit, we had no end of fun. Another time is hoped for but for now this is where we are.

In addition to group photos, Elaine made an individual portrait to catalog each doll. A few are shown below.  None of the dolls are offered for sale at this time, we are just enjoying them. I have eight and Elaine seven. The last few of these are still being clothed and finished, it has been an amazing and exciting project for us both!

 My original doll from 1990, hey! almost 30 years back!  Only six were made, all were sold and later I bought this one back from a friend in California. 

 Frederick above is doll #1 of this group, we were so excited to see him come to life! 

 Elaine's soft and lovely painting.

This little boy is almost my favorite.   e