This is something that I have been looking at pictures of for a while now, and I decided it was worth picking up, seeing it very well may be a one of a kind surviving type object today. At least - I have never seen anything like this before.
This late nineteenth century painted red earthenware figural bank, which appears to have been inspired by Roly Poly toys was found about fifteen years ago in the attic of an old house in Northfield, Mass. I believe it was made in the central Massachusetts area, where this type of production took place in the 1870s and 1880s in East Brookfield, Mass, as well as possibly other Worcester area communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In fact, a potter named Francis Drake worked in East Brookfield as a boy for a company named Linley & Wright; it is documented that he told Massachusetts author Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) that he worked there molding pottery and painting flowerpots. He said they made a variety of pottery, including molded banks in the form of apples, pears and other fruit. The fruit formed banks are often found in the antique marketplace today, however I am not convinced that they are all from the same business - multiple businesses may have made these types of banks in the late 1800s.
But Watkins did obtain from the Linley & Wright Pottery a bank in the form of a house (see below) that is now owned by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Whereas, I suspect this figural bank may have also been made at this business or at least at a company located in the Worcester, West Sterling and East Brookfield area; the paint is either original to production or was perhaps done by the child who may have originally owned it (although I suspect the paint is original to the company that made the bank).
Late 19th Century Figural Bank Found in an Attic in Northfield, Mass.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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