New England Stoneware Auction Highlights

For many casual collectors of American antiques, American stoneware is perhaps typified by the pieces made in New York State and New England during the second half of the nineteenth century. Early Connecticut potters had been making stoneware mostly in the style of the well-known Manhattan potters since the eighteenth century; Boston area stoneware potters working in the latter part of that century leaned more toward an English style of production that included brown dips. But potters in New England eventually moved--as New York State and also New Jersey potters did--toward a fairly standardized style of straight-sided, rather finely-made vessels bearing decorations ranging from simple floral designs to wild decorations of animals or even more unusual subject matter. Perhaps the most widely acclaimed families of these sorts of potters were the Nortons in Bennington, Vermont, who were famous in their day for the quality of their ware, and who made vast amounts of stoneware bearing designs ranging from simple florals to outstanding animal motifs. Other potters from the time period working in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine were usually just as capable of producing outstanding designs on their ware, which collectors particularly cherish today.