EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Stoneware Master Salt Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Compared to a Red Earthenware Example

Sunday, February 23, 2020

A Stoneware Master Salt Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Compared to a Red Earthenware Example

While visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City a few days ago, I was reminded that the museum owns a nineteenth century stoneware master salt that is directly related to a red earthenware example I wrote about a few weeks ago. In fact, both appear to have been created from the same type of glass example made in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I acquired the red earthenware salt from the longtime collection of William Flowers, who owns Old South Jersey Glass & Antiques. He told me that he has owned it for many years.

While creating these objects, the potter modeled them after a salt manufactured about 1820 at the New England Glass Company in Cambridge. The red earthenware example even retains the embossed mark from the glass salt, which reads, "N.E. Glass Company Boston." The design shown on the front and back of the salts is a cornucopia basket overflowing with fruit, while the sides are decorated with a flower and leaves.

The following pictures illustrate the stoneware, red earthenware and glass examples of this form, and I want to note that the stoneware and red earthenware salts are slightly smaller, likely showing how they were made from a mold taken directly from a glass example.

Stoneware Master Salt