Jar |
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Object Description
| Brief description | Earthenware jar attributed to Michael Ohnhaus and John Milz, Whitewater, ca. 1859-1865. |
| Object name | Jar |
| Alternate object name | Crock |
| Maker | Ohnhaus, Michael, 1824-n.d.; Milz, John |
| Date | 1859-1865 |
| Materials and techniques | Glazed wheel-thrown earthenware |
| Marks | Hand-painted six-gallon capacity mark in dark brown glaze |
| Original location | Whitewater, Walworth County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin |
| Description | Wide-mouthed six-gallon earthenware jar with banded collar and wide flat lip. Two incised lines encircle body at the level of the two applied crescent-shaped lug handles. Hand-painted floral motif in dark brown glaze. Yellow-orange lead-based glaze on interior and exterior. |
| History |
Earthenware potters in mid-nineteenth-century Wisconsin took advantage of the state's rich natural resources. They dug locally for their red and yellow clays, mixed glazes from lead mined in the southwest part of the state, and powered kilns with wood from nearby forests. Between 1845 and 1882, the city of Whitewater, Walworth County, Wisconsin was home to five potteries operated by both German immigrants and settlers from New York and New England. The Whitewater potteries supplied settlers in the region with a wide variety of utilitarian forms including jars, crocks, pots, and churns for food storage and preparation. By about 1867, the Whitewater potteries transitioned from the production of glazed utilitarian wares to unglazed flowerpots and vases. An 1861 feature in the Whitewater Register describes the pottery works of Warren Cole and William Hunter: "Cole and Hunter own and occupy and run the large Whitewater pottery on James Street, directly in front of the south side of the R. R. passenger depot. This business employs from 15 to 20 hands and three heavy teams, uses horse power for grinding the clay, and consumes over 400 cords of wood and 250 loads of clay annually, besides about 15,000 lbs. of mineral for glazing their ware. The clay is procured entirely in town and within a few miles from here and costs about one dollar and a half per load; and the mineral is brought mostly from Grant County and costs $37 ½ per thousand. The manufactures of this establishment embrace all kinds of earthenware to the amount of 200,000 gallons, valued at about $14,000, annually." Many early examples of Whitewater pottery, including the example shown here, are painted with flowers and capacity numbers in dark brown magnesium glaze, in imitation of the salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration that would have been familiar to local customers. The floral shapes on this jar suggest it was made by Michael Ohnhaus and John Milz, who worked as partners on Summit Street in Whitewater from approximately 1859-1865. |
| Sources | L. K. Hawes, "An Exhibit of the Business of the Village of Whitewater" Whitewater Register, April 26, 1861; Prosper Cravath, Early Annals of Whitewater, 1837-1867 (Whitewater Federation of WOmen's Clubs, 1906), p. 232; Albert Clayton Beckwith, History of Walworth County, Wisconsin (Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen and Co., 1912), p. 463; Kori Oberle, "Whitewater Pottery" in Kenneth Dearolf, Wisconsin Folk Pottery in the Collection of the Kenosha Public Museum (1986). |
| Related objects | A three-gallon jar with a similar form is among the collections of the Kenosha Public Museum (object # 89.25): http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,1304 |
| Owner | Wisconsin Historical Museum |
| Object # | 1968.364.1 |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Contact the owner for more information. http://wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/dom_life.asp |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | WHS126 |
| Digital format | XML |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Ceramics; Pottery; Earthenware; Redware; Jar; Vessel (container); Container (receptacle); Furnishings and equipment; Food Processing Tools and Equipment |
| Date digitized | 2008-04-03 |
| Date modified | 2011-02-02 |
Description
| Object name | Jar |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Contact the owner for more information. http://wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/dom_life.asp |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | WHS126a |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Date digitized | 2008-04-03 |
| Date modified | 2008-04-03 |
