A crock is a plain thing: what Red Wing, Minnesota, put into it

By Rafe Calder

A crock is a jar for keeping food. It is thick, heavy, round, and nobody sets out to make it beautiful. Yet in Red Wing, Minnesota, the plain jar grew into an industry that ran from 1861 to 1967 and left a museum behind.

Why this town

The Wisconsin Pottery Association, a collectors’ and historians’ group, says nearby clay deposits, water, fuel and transportation drew the early stoneware firms to Red Wing. The Red Wing Collectors Society, a collectors’ group, says clay for the Red Wing Stoneware Company was hauled by horse cart from deposits near the town of Goodhue, about 12 miles south.

The Wisconsin Pottery Association says John Paul was the first known maker of jugs, crocks and jars in Red Wing, active in 1861.

Salt glaze and Albany slip

The sources we loaded do not explain how salt glaze works, so we leave that out. They do say that Red Wing’s early wares used salt glaze and a brown glaze called Albany slip. The Wisconsin Pottery Association says a transparent white glaze replaced salt glaze and brown Albany slip around the turn of the century.

Here the sources differ by a few years. The Collectors Society says white glaze began replacing salt glaze in 1895. The Wisconsin Pottery Association says “around the turn of the century.” The Collectors Society dates the Minnesota Stoneware Company’s incorporation to 1883.

What was made

The Collectors Society lists jars, jugs, churns, water coolers and milk pans, and says the first year’s output was 1,000 gallons of ware a day. The Wisconsin Pottery Association says crocks, jugs and jars were the core of production, and that by 1900 the firms also made spittoons, umbrella holders, jardinieres and garden ware.

The Pottery Museum of Red Wing, a nonprofit museum, holds more than 6,000 vintage pieces across stoneware, art pottery, dinnerware and folk art. An exhibit listed on its site shows how local creameries used stoneware crocks and churns to advertise their butter and cheese. The exhibit may have changed since we read it.

A merger and two trademarks

Several firms competed: Red Wing Stoneware Company (1877), Minnesota Stoneware Company (1883) and North Star Stoneware Company (1892), according to the Wisconsin Pottery Association. In 1894 three firms formed the Union Stoneware Company as one sales agent. North Star was absorbed in 1896, and the rest merged in 1906 as Red Wing Union Stoneware.

For anyone trying to date a piece, the same source gives two marks. Two “paired leaf” logos were used as trademarks from 1906, and the “red wing” trademark was first used in 1909. We have not loaded a guide to reading crock markings, and these two dates are not a dating method on their own.

After the crocks

The Wisconsin Pottery Association says art pottery began in the 1920s, the company re-incorporated as Red Wing Potteries, Inc. in 1936, and dinnerware, which began in 1935 with the Gypsy Trail line, became the staple product from the early 1940s until operations ended in 1967.

Dates in order

1861: John Paul, first known maker of jugs, crocks and jars in Red Wing.
1877: Red Wing Stoneware Company incorporated.
1883: Minnesota Stoneware Company incorporated, according to the Collectors Society.
1894: Union Stoneware Company formed as a joint sales agent.
1895 or about 1900: white glaze starts to replace salt glaze, depending on the source.
1906: merger into Red Wing Union Stoneware; paired leaf trademarks begin.
1909: first use of the “red wing” trademark.
1936: reincorporated as Red Wing Potteries, Inc.
1967: operations end.

Side by side

Question	Collectors Society	Wisconsin Pottery Association	Wikipedia
First maker	Not stated (company incorporated 1877)	John Paul, 1861	John Paul, 1861
White glaze replaces salt	Began 1895	Around 1900	Not stated
Minnesota Stoneware	Incorporated 1883	Formed 1883	Salt-glazed ware 1880 to 1906
End of the pottery	Not stated	1967	1967

What kind of sources these are

Two collectors’ and historians’ groups with a stake in the subject, and the Pottery Museum of Red Wing’s own site. They are guides to dates, and none is a lab study of glaze. We used no encyclopedia.

What we left out

Collectors’ prices, gallon numbers on crocks, advice on using old crocks for food (the sources we loaded do not cover it), and any living makers.

Quick answers

When did Red Wing make stoneware crocks? According to the Wisconsin Pottery Association, from 1861, when John Paul was making jugs, crocks and jars there, until the pottery closed in 1967.

What glaze did Red Wing crocks have? The Red Wing Collectors Society says salt glaze and Albany slip. The Wisconsin Pottery Association says a white glaze replaced both around 1900.

What is the Red Wing trademark date? The Wisconsin Pottery Association says paired leaf logos were used from 1906 and the “red wing” trademark was first used in 1909.

Roam first. Shop later.

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