Stoneware maker
Norton Pottery (Bennington) marks
Captain John Norton started a redware kiln in Bennington in 1793 and added salt-glazed stoneware around 1800.
- Active
- 1793–1894
- Based in
- Bennington, Vermont, United States
- Marks listed
- 9
- Typical pieces
- crocks, jugs, churns, water coolers
The marks, by date
Each mark’s wording is written out as a transcription: the words and line breaks, not a picture of the mark. Where a source describes a mark instead of quoting it, the description is shown in italics.
Where: side, near the rim
Where: side
Where: side
Where: side
Where: side
The period of the most elaborate decoration.
Where: side
Where: side
Where: side
Where: side
History
The pottery stayed in the family for a century, trading under a string of partnership names, each with its own impressed stamp. The most elaborately decorated cobalt pieces date from the J. & E. Norton years of the 1850s. Production ended in 1894.
Dating clues
- Each partnership stamp brackets a piece to a few years; the J. & E. Norton and J. Norton & Co. stamps together cover 1850–1861.
- Decorator John Hilfinger worked at the pottery from 1855 until he enlisted in 1864.
Other names on the marks
L. Norton; Julius Norton; Norton & Fenton; J. & E. Norton; J. Norton & Co.; E. & L. P. Norton; E. Norton & Co.; Edw'd Norton Co.
Where sources disagree: Stamp wording is given as the firm names listed in the mark chronologies; exact punctuation on individual stamps can vary.
Sources
Marks help identify a maker and a date range, but they can’t prove a piece is genuine. Reproductions and later reissues can carry old marks. This entry isn’t an appraisal.