I honestly have trouble with some of the nineteenth and early twentieth century red earthenware, sewer tile and stoneware lions that exist today largely because I cannot tell whether some of them were made in America or England. For example, this lion sold earlier this summer on eBay, and my immediate impression was that it must have been made in England. Although, a closer look revealed that it was actually American made and stamped "Grand Ledge" among other information.
According to a report written by Marsha MacDowell and Kurt Duhurst, which was published by Northeast Historical Archaeology in 1980, titled, The Sewer Clay Pottery of Grand Ledge, Michigan, "Grand Ledge is unusual because there are few known potteries in Michigan. Unlike the eastern states that had numerous potteries, Michigan had only seven cities with potteries besides Grand Ledge. There were a number of factories located in Grand Ledge in the 1800s and 1900s that produced a variety of pottery, although the workers at the clay factories were known to make art objects during lunch time and fire them in the kilns. Workers made alligators, frogs, lambs and other objects, but the lion was the best known.
The folk art appeal in general, and the clay lions in particular of Grand Ledge were no doubt to some extent the outgrowth of the rural folk artist's attempt to imitate what they had seen in books or first hand or simply had heard of by way of mouth. Possibly the inspiration for the clay lions was those produced in Bennington, Vermont, or perhaps in examples imported from England."
This particular example is the first lion that I have seen marked "Grand Ledge;" however, I have since learned that collections of Grand Ledge's folk pottery exist in both the Grand Ledge Historical Society and at Michigan State University.
This Grand Ledge lion sold for $267.
A Rare Sewer Tile Lion from Grand Rapids, Michigan
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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