EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Good 19th Century Stoneware Doorstop in the Form of a Spaniel Retaining a History of Family Ownership with the Potter Who Made It

Friday, March 15, 2024

A Good 19th Century Stoneware Doorstop in the Form of a Spaniel Retaining a History of Family Ownership with the Potter Who Made It

I learned about a very good nineteenth century stoneware doorstop in the form of a spaniel after posting earlier this week about another nineteenth century molded stoneware doorstop, also in the form of a spaniel and impressed "Fort Dodge Stoneware Co. / Fort Dodge, Iowa." It is also important to note that the Iowa-made object had descended through family ownership since the object was originally manufactured sometime about 1870 or shortly thereafter. Interestingly, the spaniel was also made at a company that was owned and operated by New York-trained potter, Martin White, and an investor, Richard Meigs. Nevertheless, the dog that I just learned about also retains a history of family ownership.

According to the dog's owner Robert Bussell, "This was a prized possession of my mother’s. She inherited it from her grandmother Isabelle Katherine Thomas Fiske. She always told me that a great grandfather made it. If I take her literally then that would have been Ephraim Thomas, who was born in 1838 in Lyons New York and buried in Des Moines, Iowa in 1895. We know that his father Shem Thomas worked for various stoneware factories as a potter, which included Nathan Clark and Thompson Harrington in Lyons from 1830-1852, in Penn Yan, New York from 1853-1855 and in Harrisburg Pennsylvania from 1856-1870. I also believe Ephraim also worked in Huntingdon Pennsylvania, Des Moines and even for F.H. Cowden in Harrisburg from 1892-1893. The fact that these spaniels were popular in the 1870s has led me to believe it was made by Ephraim and brought home to the family to use as a doorstop or to just prove he could make one with a solid base. I assume it would take quite a bit of skill working the air bubbles out of the clay to have such a solid base.”

An aspect about this spaniel that also caught my attention is how the the fur on the dog appears to have either been created by hand or enhanced by some sort of tool. Many of the American stoneware and red earthenware spaniels that exist today are completely molded, whereas this object seems to have been given more attention. The pedestal base is also a nice enhancement, which is a characteristic of some stoneware spaniels made in the Harrisburg and Greensboro, Pennsylvania area, such as an important example that is consigned to Crocker Farm's sale later this month in Sparks, Maryland.

A Good 19th Century Stoneware Doorstop in the Form of a Spaniel