Stoneware Dog Crock with Heart on the Bottom

Have an old stoneware dog crock with a strange mark on the bottom. We have had no luck finding another one like it. It almost looks as if there is writing on the bottom, but we really think it is just marks. We dusted it with flour one time and with cinnamon another time but still can't really make out any marks other than the large heart in the center and the pencilled 15. Does anybody recognize this mark? I didn't upload a photo of the dog dish. If anybody needs to see it let me know. I am just mostly curious about the mark.

 

This is a wild-eyed guess but . . .

I wonder if it was manufactured (and/or sold) by Hartz (Mountain) dog/pet food company.

I "think" I remember (from long ago) Hartz dog (and even "bird" accessories/toys/food back in the day of "everyone" having a parakeet) accessories/toys/food being sold with a "heart" as an emblem on packaging or on the item itself.

Again, just a wild-eyed guess on my part.

 

Yes, post more pictures. I looked in Lehner's, but it isn't in there. It would be nice to know what I'm looking for when doing an internet search.

 

Sorry, I will add them. The dish is 7" across the top and bottom and 2 and 3/8" high. The lip at the top is 1" wide.

 

Bringing back an old, old post because I found the answer today. The heart mark is an early Burley Winter Pottery mark. Sometimes the Burley Winter name surrounded the heart but most often it didn't.
I bought an old eared mottled glaze vase today and thought it was Burley Winter. In searching for it I found the heart mark.

 

This is the pot I bought today

 

Always nice to have an update, even if it is an old thread.
Thank you.

 

The green pot looks like Brush McCoy.

 

Yes and Brush made pots like this, but I am pretty sure it is a Burley Winter. Their bottoms were never quite so nice as Brush's were and there are no stilt marks. I think there are also some early Hull's that were a similar shape. The ears are really what makes me think Burley Winter.

 

I always liked these pots, no matter who made them. Such a soothing shape to them.

 

I like the shape, too. Very modern for a piece that old.

 

Came across your post and I have the twin to your dog dish.. Came across it about 20 years ago under the front porch of an older house I was moving out of in the Warren, OH area.

 

Mine was in a house in Lancaster, Ohio. Burley Winter operated out of Crooksville and Zanesville in southern Ohio. Two members of the family still have stores in the Zanesville area and I think some of the family still has Burley Clay in Roseville.