A Rare 19th Century Stoneware Crock Impressed with the Name of a Lynn, Massachusetts Merchant

Yesterday, I visited an antique shop in Salem, Massachusetts, which I occasionally attempt to pick a few times a year - inside this shop, I saw a circa 1870-1880 two-gallon stoneware crock decorated with a blue bird perched on a log. The crock was marked 'F.B. STEVENS / 75 MARKET STREET / LYNN (Massachusetts).' 

To my knowledge, this is a rare crock to find today. There are not many Lynn, Massachusetts merchant jugs known today, and even fewer are decorated with any kind of cobalt decoration.

Lynn is located about ten-miles north of Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was a place that employed the Edmands family pottery in the nineteenth-century. This business actually produced high-quality stoneware until about 1905. It would be expected that the merchant, F.B. Stevens would have contracted with the nearest stoneware manufacturer to produce stoneware for his business needs; however, I don't believe this is a Charlestown bird. I haven't been able to find proof that this is even a New England bird. Rather, it appears similar to birds that were applied in upstate New York and New Jersey during the second-half of the nineteenth-century.

Interestingly, this may be proof that it was cheaper for some New England merchants to purchase stoneware from manufacturers in New York and New Jersey, where the proper clay for stoneware production was cheaper, and easily available to the potter. In some cases: it was also a more-direct (water) route to import stoneware rather than contract with the stoneware manufacturers in western Massachusetts and Vermont.

Note: The potter's in Charlestown likely imported clay for stoneware production into the twentieth-century from the Hudson River since this part of New England did not provide a large amount of quality clay for this type of production. This business expense likely made stoneware products more-expense, too.

If anyone is interested in this crock: please let me know, and I can provide the asking price and the shop's information.

19th Century 2-Gallon Stoneware Crock Decorated with a Bird Perched on Log

Stamped 'F.B. STEVENS / 75 MARKET STREET / LYNN'

Possibly Manufactured in Upstate New York or New Jersey

Circa 1870-1880

View of the Stamp 'F.B. STEVENS / 75 MARKET STREET / LYNN'

View of One Handle

View of the Interior 

View of the Base

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