Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Christine Steingass, post: 13100440, member: 114460&quot;]I did some digging on this one. First, I believe the “4” is a four-gallon capacity mark, not quarts or liters. Four-gallon American stoneware crocks were routinely marked this way.</p><p><br /></p><p>The form also looks quite consistent with 19th-century American stoneware: applied lug handles, tooled/incised bands and freehand cobalt decoration. I found documented examples with very similar construction and cobalt floral/tulip decoration dating roughly from the mid-to-late 1800s.</p><p><br /></p><p>Crocker Farm has a circa-1875 Philadelphia four-gallon example with lug handles and large cobalt tulips:</p><p><a href="https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2016-03-19/lot-211/4-Gal-Stoneware-Crock-with-Floral-Decoration-Philadelphia-circa-1870/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2016-03-19/lot-211/4-Gal-Stoneware-Crock-with-Floral-Decoration-Philadelphia-circa-1870/" rel="nofollow">https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2016-03-19/lot-211/4-Gal-Stoneware-Crock-with-Floral-Decoration-Philadelphia-circa-1870/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Another documented four-gallon example from H.B. Pfaltzgraff in York, PA is dated circa 1870–1889:</p><p><a href="https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2014-07-19/lot-413/4-Gal-H-B-PFALTZGRAFF-YORK-PA-Stoneware-Crock-with-Large-Floral-Decoration/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2014-07-19/lot-413/4-Gal-H-B-PFALTZGRAFF-YORK-PA-Stoneware-Crock-with-Large-Floral-Decoration/" rel="nofollow">https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2014-07-19/lot-413/4-Gal-H-B-PFALTZGRAFF-YORK-PA-Stoneware-Crock-with-Large-Floral-Decoration/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>So I would definitely investigate this as potentially 19th century rather than later reproduction stoneware.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wouldn&#039;t name the maker yet, though. That extremely faint impression on the bottom may be the best clue here, but I can&#039;t read it confidently from this photo. If you can photograph the bottom with a flashlight shining almost horizontally across it from several directions, the shadows may reveal the lettering. I think that mark is worth chasing.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in