Images(7)

Four-Gallon Cooler

Date1847-1860

Artist/Maker Somerset Potters Works ((active 1847-1882))

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Somerset

MediumSalt-glazed stoneware

Dimensions16" x 13" x 13 5/16" (40.6 cm. x 33.0 cm. x 35.4 cm.)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1975.900.1

DescriptionSalt-glazed stoneware urn shaped cooler on pedestal base with two lug handles. The piece is decorated with blue dots in a line around the shoulders, two birds stamped on one side and slip trailed floral decoration on the reverse.
Label TextThe Chace family made earthenware in Somerset at least as early as 1768. In 1847, almost eighty years later, brothers Benjamin and Clark Chace built a stoneware kiln on the family property and incorporated as the Somerset Potters Works.
This piece is distinguished by the stamped decoration of birds on branches. Stamped ornamentation was not common on stoneware from the Northeast and appeared more frequently on objects made by potters in New York State. That the Somerset Potters Works invested in stamps for this type of adornment suggests a level of commitment to decorative wares beyond the odd embellishment.
---Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Stoneware
Exhibition curated by Suzanne Findlen Hood
At the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
February 2007

MarkingsImpressed "SOMERSET POTTERS WORKS/somerset/4"
ProvenanceMaze Pottinger Antiques, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Exhibition(s)