I posted a story to this website last month, titled, A Stoneware Jug that Retains a History of Ownership with the Conover Family in New Jersey, whereas the cobalt decoration on the eighteenth century stoneware jug seemed similar to some types of decorations produced at the circa 1746-1790s Kemple Pottery in Ringoes, New Jersey, as well as the circa 1770s-1780s pottery of Captain James Morgan (1734-1784) in Middlesex County, New Jersey. I had just acquired the jug in one of the fields at the antique shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts.
According to the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, "One of the most important and influential potteries in eighteenth century America was established by the Morgan family in Cheesequake (located in modern-day Old Bridge, New Jersey). Morgan stoneware was often decorated with a distinctive “watch-spring” motif, a brushed-on blue spiral design."
However, before I wrote that story, I posted the jug to my Instagram and Facebook accounts, where it was suggested that the jug also shared some characteristics in form to some jugs produced by David Morgan in Manhattan in the late 1700s and early 1800s, although there is a lot yet to be learned about Morgan's production and career.
Furthermore, found in one of the many archaeology collections kept at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York is an eighteenth century cobalt decorated stoneware jug, which is different in shape around the top compared to the jug that I acquired, but it bears one type of a "watch-spring" cobalt decoration on the front and back of the jug. This jug was recovered from an eighteenth century archaeological context in Manhattan, which was the location of various stoneware potters during the 1700s, including the Remmeys, the Crolius', David Morgan and Thomas Commeraw, etc.
There are also a number of stoneware sherds decorated with a "watch-spring" motif in various eighteenth and early nineteenth century archaeology collections at the New York City Archaeological Repository in Manhattan. Understandably, I find the idea of determining where certain "watch-spring" decorations originated in either New Jersey or Manhattan is often difficult.
For example, it is not an exact match, although shown below is one sherd with a "watch-spring" decoration that was recovered from a mid-eighteenth century to 1815 context at the Seneca Village site in Manhattan. The technique of this "watch-spring" is somewhat similar to the decoration on the jug that I acquired in Brimfield last month, although the "watch-springs" on the jug and sherd were applied in two different directions.
Nevertheless, the idea of this New York City versus New Jersey subject is further discussed in an article written by Arthur F. Goldberg, Peter Warwick and Leslie Warwick for the 2008 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, Eighteenth-Century New Jersey Stoneware Potteries of Captain James Morgan and the Kemple Family: https://www.chipstone.org/article.php/411/ceramics-in-america-2008/the-eighteenth-century-new-jersey-stoneware-potteries-of-captain-james-morgan-and-the-kemple-family.
A Stoneware Jug and Other Sherds Recovered in Manhattan
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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