A good example of nineteenth century slip-script decorated red earthenware sold last June at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates in Mount Crawford, Virginia. That object was inscribed "Hancock 4 Ever." Interestingly, I just came across a similar plate that appears to be the same decorator's hand, which is inscribed "Hancock Pottery." This object is owned today by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
According to the Smithsonian, "This plate is part of one of three gifts/bequests from John Paul Remensnyder. In the 1981 Collections Committee memo requesting permission to accept the 67 objects in this group (this was the final group) former curator Susan Myers said that the piece is often illustrated in works on New Jersey. There’s a notation saying the piece was formerly in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whereas the sale catalog number seems to be titled W.P. Wilstach Collection and Objects to be Sold by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Samuel T. Freeman & Co, 1954, #324d.
Additionally, in their 1981 appraisal of the collection, New York City ceramics specialists Garrison and Diana Stradling thought the plate dated to the mid-nineteenth century and noted that it was illustrated in a New Jersey State Museum publication from 1972, titled, New Jersey Pottery to 1840 (cat #95), where they go on to say it could also be Singer Pottery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, although the museum curators at the time crossed that out on the cataloging sheet."
Nonetheless, it should also be noted that there is a Hancock, Berks County, Pennsylvania. There were also some potters working in the Albany and Hudson River area in New York with the surname "Hancock," but I do not believe there is any connection (although I am not sure either).
19th C. Slip-Script Red Earthenware Plate Inscribed "Hancock Pottery"
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