Welcome to the second day, traveling through the cottage in search of stoneware items. Though they abound in other areas of this room, this photo features two.

A Brief Tour

This fireplace is part of the original section of the cottage, which was built in 1900.  The fireplace and chimney are actually on the outside wall of the house.  It is cold and inefficient. So we have closed the damper, and use the fireplace as a decorative focal point of the room.

This room has relatively low ceilings, and this mantle bisects the vertical space. This mantle changes dramatically from season to season.

In this presentation of the mantle decorations the main focus is on the game board, and all other items are in support of a visual element.

Stoneware

When I cluster together various items such as these, Charles often refers to them as vignettes. Two stoneware items are used as part of the layering in this particular vignette.

On the left is a very squat jug that had an old printed paper label on it that said, “Old Fashioned Maple Syrup”. I just brought the jug to the shop.

More fascinating item is the one the right.  It was a large foot warmer, or perhaps a water bottle. It was tall, wide and only about 3 inches thick. At the top, there were ears  that held the wire bail with the wooden handle. It always amazed me, that is old is this item was, those small clay ears still remained intact.

We have had many of the cylindrical stoneware hot water bottles, we refer to them as “pigs”, because the ends remind us of a pig nose.  But we haven’t seen many of the flat hot water bottles. I was able to locate one online that was similar.

If you like this photo and story, please share it with your friends with any of the buttons below.