EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A 19th Century Rockingham Glazed Shaving Cup from Baltimore with an Inscription on the Base

Saturday, December 17, 2022

A 19th Century Rockingham Glazed Shaving Cup from Baltimore with an Inscription on the Base

I found this earlier this week in northern New England: A rare nineteenth century Rockingham glazed shaving cup made at the E. & W. Bennett Pottery in Baltimore, circa 1850s. These types of mugs that are known today are typically either unmarked or impressed on the base "E. & W. BENNETT, / CANTON AVENUE / BALTIMORE Md."

Interestingly, there is a faint inscription that was somehow applied in the glaze on the base of this object that is very similar to an inscription on a black glazed teapot in the inventory of Pennsylvania antiques dealer Greg Kramer, which some have previously speculated that it may have also been made in Baltimore.

Edwin Bennett (March 6, 1818 – June 13, 1908) was born in Newhall, Derbyshire in England. Furthermore, he was an English American pioneer of the pottery industry and art in the United States, and founder of the Edwin Bennett Pottery Company in Baltimore. He produced a variety of wares from the everyday to the fine and artistic at his company, which was originally founded in the 1840s as the Edwin Bennett Queensware Manufactory, and continued in operation until it was forced to close during the Great Depression in 1936.

Nonetheless, shaving cups identical to this one can be found displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, among other museums.

A 19th Century Rockingham Glazed Shaving Cup from Baltimore