Exceedingly Rare One-Gallon Salt-Glazed Stoneware Jar, Stamped "DONALDSON," Denton County, TX origin, circa 1876, cylindrical jar with rounded shoulder, thick, semi-rounded rim, and salt-glazed surface. While the mark on this jar could refer to a previous enterprise operated by Thomas Jefferson Donaldson (or another member of his family), it was most likely made during Donaldson's proprietorship of what had been John W. Cranston's stoneware manufactory, beginning about 1876. (Thomas J. Donaldson is the same man who about 1860 made stoneware under a partnership with Augustus H. Serren; a surviving jar marked "SERREN & DONALDSON" was sold in Crocker Farm's Spring 2021 auction, lot 177, and its form is remarkably similar to that seen here.) As detailed in Leslie Bucher's research notes for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Donaldson was the nephew of Nancy Violet Donaldson Cranston, wife of John W. Cranston. After John's death in 1867, the shop was run by Nancy and perhaps later by their son, George, who sold the pottery in 1875. Donaldson purchased it in 1876 and quickly announced his ownership of it in the pictured ad. This is the first jar we have seen bearing the mark "DONALDSON." Recently surfaced in Dallas, TX. Very nice condition with a small chip to underside at edge, shallow chipping to interior of rim, and an in-the-firing stone ping to exterior of rim. H 9 3/4".
