There are over 150 different varieties of stoneware and earthenware bottles from Wisconsin - far more than any of the surrounding states. Why were they so popular here? Most have no maker's mark, so what potteries made them? None have survived with paper labels so it's unclear what products they were even used for. And why did many bottlers use both glass and stoneware bottles at the same time? The earliest marked stoneware bottles from Wisconsin are from the 1840's and 1850's and by the 1880's they began to fall out of favor. By the turn of the century, they had become obsolete. Why did that happen? This article explores these and other questions about this fascinating category of early Wisconsin bottles.

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In April 2022, a short road trip to the antique shops in Watertown resulted in the discovery of an early style stoneware bottle marked “F. SCHWARZ & Co MILWAUKEE.” It had been someone’s subject for an art project. When I spotted it, I immediately recognized the style as a Milwaukee made bottle, but upon examination I was overjoyed to see the stamp!

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Many bottle collectors are aware of Edwin H. and C.J. Merrill and their 1847 U.S. Patent number 5,206 for a process for making pressed, molded stoneware bottles by machine. Less well known is the 1868 Merrill patent for improvements to the machine (Figure 1). The redesigned equipment improved quality and efficiency. It also enables today’s collectors to determine if a molded bottle was made before or after 1868 from markings on the bottoms, much like glass bottles can be dated based on the presence of a pontil mark. In the case of pressed clay bottles, however, the older ones have smooth bases while those with rough bottoms date from after 1868. 

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One of the staple products offered to settlers, farmers and local residents was utilitarian pottery. In the Territorial years most of it was imported via Great Lakes shipping from Ohio or New York. After pottery manufacturing started in the late 1840's some merchants sold locally made and imported pottery, both stoneware and earthenware. Some pieces were made to order with merchant names stamped into them. Some were sold with product inside, other pottery was sold as containers for use on the farm or in the home. This presentation covers pre-civil war examples of pottery and the history of the merchants who sold them.

This quart earthenware bottle was discovered recently in Portage, Wisconsin. The bottle was made at a Portage City Pottery for Ben Atwell of Madison who put up Table Beer in the bottle. It is lead glazed and wheel turned. This is the first bottle found from Atwell who ran a retail grocery store on the corner of State and Johnson Streets who operated from 1856 to the 1860's. By 1870 he was a "Market Farmer" presumably selling produce from his farm. The bottle dates from 1859 to 1863 which are the years that the Portage City potteries operated.

Although this unlisted quart stoneware bottle is unknown to most collectors it has been in the collection of the Kenosha Museum for many years. The stamp reads F. BUTTRFIELD MONROE and was probably made by the Charles Hermann & Co. stoneware factory in Milwaukee around 1880. Based on the bottle style it probably was used for Small Beer which was a type of non or low alchohol content brewed beverege such as Root Beer, Lemon Beer, Sarsaparilla, etc. Little is known about Mr. Butterfield. There is a Fred Butterfield listed in the 1880 Census for the City of Monroe but he lists his occupation as Dentist so he may or may not be the owner of this soda bottling operation. No other bottles, advertisements or other references have surfaced yet from F. Butterfield. More information is needed on this company.
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The photo galleries on this site contain photos of some great examples of rare and beautiful old bottles, early Wisconsin pottery and advertising items from top private collections. Many are so rare that you may never see any of them in person. The galleries have just a small number of items of really great pieces. Topics include:

Soda Bottles
Bitters Bottles
Blob Soda Bottles
Advertising Signs
Colored Hutch Soda Bottles
Colored Quart Soda Bottles
Stoneware Bottles
Advertising Shot Glasses (Pre-Pro)
Beer & Ale Bottles
Whitewater Earthenware
W.D. Mosier Pottery
Charles Hermann & Co Stoneware
O.F. Baker Stoneware
Whiskey Backbar bottles
and more

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In our collecting hobby, we sometimes encounter artifacts that seemingly are the only remaining evidence of a past person’s life. Usually with subsequent research from the name, location, or approximate date of the bottle, jug, or other item, we are able to assemble a story about the original owner. We do this by studying old city directories, business organization listings of the time, genealogies, census records, and land ownership documents.
Such is the case of one Henry W. Chamberlain of Sheboygan County Wisconsin in the 1850’s. I acquired a salt glazed jar marked “H. W. Chamberlain Sheboygan Wis” in the 1980’s from an avid auction goer in Menomonee Falls. Then in 2002, I acquired a decorated, salt glazed pitcher with the same mark from Bob Markiewicz that he had just purchased and I was able to seize the opportunity before Bob got too attached to the pitcher. Accompanying the pitcher was a 1997 letter from Janice Hildebrand, a well known author of Sheboygan area history.

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Charles Hermann & Co. is the best known and most productive stoneware manufacturer in Wisconsin in the 19th century. Spanning thirty years in Milwaukee, starting in 1856 and ending with the transfer of his business to his step-son in 1886, his products are still found all over Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. His factory employed a large staff of potters and decorators and served as a school for a number of these craftspeople to launch their own potteries From the finest decorated jugs, pots and his churns of his pottery’s earliest years to the ubiquitous Albany slip, “bee-hive” jugs with the “C. HERMANN & CO.- MILWAUKEE” oval stamp, this entrepreneur made his mark. The authors provide new research that expands the knowledge of Hermann’s products and the people that made them.

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Okay, so it’s not quite the New York Times but being featured in the Mukwonago Times article was a coup considering the fact that Henry Hecker was not even the speaker. Speaker and expert on Whitewater pottery Kori Oberle gave a great presentation on Whitewater pottery at the Whitewater Historical Society museum located in the railroad depot building. The event was centered around a 45 piece collection of Whitewater earthenware that the Historical Society recently acquired. The collection includes some great examples of Whitewater pottery such as a foot warmer, a sponge decorated pitcher and some exceptional decorated pieces.  

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Otto Zwietusch was a prolific inventor and manufacturer of soda bottling apparatus and soda in Milwaukee from the 1860’s through the 1880’s in Milwaukee. His business sold bottling apparatus and equipment to soda bottlers throughout the US. Some of the interesting items used by his business include some great bottles, stoneware and bottling apparatus including these hand-hammered copper vessels which were probably used for bottling soda. The article tells the story of the man, his business and the artifacts he left behind.

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Waukesha soda bottler John Bollow failed to return from a delivery run in July of 1889. Later his horses arrived at his home with the delivery wagon and there was blood on the seat. Fearing the worst, his family set out on a search for John. They found him propped up against a tree, shot in the head apparently with his own gun in what looked like a suicide. However, the blood on the wagon and missing cash told a different story.

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On May 13, 2014, the Pewaukee Historical Society hosted the MABAC monthly meeting in its visitor center building on the Asa Clark Museum property. Over 40 Society and club members attended and were treated to a presentation on the life of Col. Nicolas P. Iglehart, an early hotel and mineral springs owner in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. The presentation by Henry Hecker, a long-time member of MABAC, was a culmination of his research on the Oakton Spring Water Company and Oakton Springs Hotel which entrepreneur Iglehart ran in the 1870’s.

The presentation covered Iglehart’s illustrious public and private life with special focus on his last four years of his life in Pewaukee. Henry showed a number of artifacts related to Oakton Springs including a stereopticon photo of the hotel and a 3 gallon jug stenciled with “Oakton Springs Water.” A special treat was the fact that the Kirley family, the current owners of the Octagon house in Pewaukee were in the audience. Colonel Iglehart lived in the Octagon house during his stay in Pewaukee. The Kirley’s were thrilled to learn about Iglehart and shared some of the ghost stories of this incredible home.

A number of Historical Society members were able to augment Henry’s research during open discussion. Finally, the most amazing part of the meeting was the appearance of a previously unknown 3 gallon Oakton Springs stoneware jug brought to the meeting by the Sampsons, Pewaukee residents. The jug is a family heirloom that has remained in Pewaukee for almost 150 years and will someday likely find a home in the Museum collection.

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Member Tom Fredrick found this bottle while scuba diving with Bob Libbey for bottles. While several varieties of Fred Bock glass soda bottles are known to exist this is the first Fred Bock clay bottle and the only stoneware bottle from the city of Boscobel, Wisconsin. The bottle is stamped FRE-BOCK with the letter “I” turned sideways in place of a dash. It is probably one of the first bottles used by Fred Bock’s business which was thought to have started in 1882. There are many other similar Wisconsin stoneware bottles from other bottlers that were made by the same pottery maker, probably Charles Hermann & Co. from Milwaukee. Despite the missing top it is a wonderful and interesting find.

A recent Julie’s Antique Auction catalog featured a rare miniature salt-glazed stoneware canteen flask as the cover lot. The canteen measures about 3” tall and is marked “Compliments of G.M. PIERRON” on one side and “A HAPPY NEW YEAR 1894”. It has a heavy orange peel glaze one side. It was in mint condition with the original cork, chain attaching it to the handle and red white and blue ribbon. The unique features of this piece created the perfect storm of collector interest. It was made by Redwing, it is associated with the Pierron Stoneware Company, has a great glaze, is dated, rare and mint.