Half a Million Hits and Two “New Finds”

                    

Foreword:  This post marks the point where this blog has reached just over 500,000 “hits” over its lifetime.  By comparison with many other websites that is a paltry number but “BottlesBooze…” from the beginning has been idiosyncratic, “about more things than you can shake a stick at,” and has not been geared to attract legions of followers.  From time to time I have used it to introduce “new finds” in collectible bottles, and just in time for this half million milestone two such have recently come  to light.  

The first is an under-glaze transfer jug that figured in a trans-Atlantic debate I carried on thirty years ago with the leading British expert on ceramic bottles, Alan Blakeman.  At that time I was convinced that most, if not all, of the fancy whiskey jugs were made in Scotland or England and shipped to our shores.  Alan disagreed. He argued that the U.S. must have had pottery firms with the capability of designing and executing even intricate transfer designs. Alan was right.  

I saw the proof for myself in 1998. It was a small stoneware butter crock, likely a salesman's sample issued by the Sherwood Bros. Pottery of New Brighton, Pennsylvania. The crock is drawn with an elegance and precision equal to anything the “Old World” could produce. Ad copy on the item offers to provide underglaze transfer printed items of equal perfection to Sherwood Brothers clients.

The crock was part of a private collection of Sherwood Bros. ceramics that I had driven 280 miles to see in New Brighton.  The collector who regularly dug at the site of the former ceramics works, shown above, had  found a shard that indicated a similar pattern might be found on a whiskey jug.  In the 32 ensuing years I have looked for such an item without result —until last month.  Seen below is the jug as it appeared on eBay in March, advertised as “very rare” — almost an understatement.  Attracting five bidders, opened at $125 and ultimately sold for $305.

In tandem with the Sherwood Bros. jug, the same seller listed a second  container, this one from the Fulper Pottery Company of Flemington, New Jersey.  Year ago I identified this ceramic works as the source of a distinguishable variety of whiskey jug.  Since then I have compiled a list of some 135 different examples of Fulper products, a list I make available upon request.  I had never, however, seen this particular example before.  It advertised “Imperial Club Pure Rye” and was issued originally by the William Page & Company of New York City.

Because these jugs essentially are decorated over the glaze and are more than 100 years old, they frequently show wear on the gold lettering and design, particularly on the lower half that typically has a dark glaze.   As shown here, this jug shows some minor wear but in general has its decoration intact. I am particularly impressed with the elaborate gold crown at the center of the label that seems utterly intact.   Despite its appearance, this item, offered at $95, failed to attract single bidder.  Unfortunately these ceramics often do not fetch more than $50. In good condition, as this whiskey jug is, I think they are undervalued.

Sherwood Brothers: Under the Radar

Almost two decades ago, I wrote an article entitled “Who Made America’s Whiskey Ceramics?” At that time I was convinced that most, if not all, of the fancy jugs and bottles were made in Scotland or England and shipped to our shores. Alan Blakeman, the leading guru on British bottles, disagreed. He argued that the U.S. must have had
pottery firms with the capability of designing and executing even intricate transfer designs. Alan was right.

I saw the proof for myself in 1998. It was a small stoneware crock, a salesman's sample for the Sherwood Bros. Pottery of New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Shown here in a detail, the crock is drawn with an elegance and precision equal to anything the “Old World” could produce. The ad copy on the item offers to provide underglaze transfer printed items of equal perfection to Sherwood Brothers clients.

With about 7,000 population New Brighton is nestled in the western Appalachian mountains not far from Pittsburgh. Founded in 1815 and shown here in an 1883 sketch, the town is situated on a bluff on the west bank of the Beaver River. Because of good clay sources in the region, the town spawned a number of ceramic manufacturers. About 1879, the Sherwood brothers, G.W. and W.D., founded their pottery. By 1895 they were employing as many as 140 workers and had the capacity to produce two railroad carloads of pottery per day. Their success extended into the 20th Century.

For most of its existence Sherwood Brothers had a highly skilled force of pottery workers and artisans. Unlike other American potteries of the time, this firm had mastered the art of the underglaze transfer. This process requires great skill and precision. Sherwood Brothers boasted of its “Sherwood Ware” as a “decidedly superior line, made up in a decidedly superior way.” Its transfer work, the company said, was accomplished “from fine designs cut in copper, bringing out patterns than cannot possibly be reproduced by a rubber stamp.” Stamping was a more commonly used, and cruder, method of inking a design or label on pottery. The firm bragged about its workforce: “Sherwood artists, experts who devote all their time to this work, are constantly producing some strikingly beautiful results.”

A catalog from early in that period shows Sherwood Bros. Company offering a wide range of stoneware items, including whiskey jugs, stoneware bottles, inks, canning jars, jelly crocks, mugs and steins, pitchers, teapots, stacking bowls, cuspidors, match scratchers, and water coolers, chicken watering fonts, ice tubs, butter and preserve jars and -- not to be overlooked -- chamber pots. Shown here are examples of their jugs.

Because a major component of the firm’s trade was whiskey containers, the arrival of Prohibition in 1920 was serious blow to its business. This shock was compounded by the onset of the Great Depression a few years later. Business directories indicate that by 1931 the number of employees had dwindled to 40 and by 1935 was only 35. About 1939 Sherwood Bros. went out of business.

Other defunct potteries such as those in Red Wing, Minnesota; Knowles, Taylor & Knowles in East Liverpool, Ohio; and White’s of Utica, New York, have continued to attracted the attention of generations of collectors to their ceramic containers. Sherwood Brothers, perhaps because they did not always mark their products, consistently have flown below the collector radar. As America’s foremost transfer printing pottery of the 19th and 20th Centuries, they deserve a much better fate.