- Designer and Decorator: Hugh C. Robertson
- Manufacturer: Dedham Pottery
North Atlantic Blue Crab
1894-1904
Physical Qualities
Stoneware, 8 x 8 x 1 1/4 in. (20.3 x 20.3 x 3.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Michael and Anis Merson, Baltimore
Object Number
2001.331
When Hugh C. Robertson, a fifth-generation Scottish potter, visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, he was intrigued by Chinese sang de boeuf (oxblood or red glazed) pottery fired with a craquelure (crackle pattern) surface. Twenty years after working at his family’s Chelsea Pottery (1867 – 1895) in Massachusetts, he opened Dedham Pottery, which became famous for high-fire arts-and-crafts stoneware with craquelure glazes and cobalt-blue designs. The firm’s rabbit and brussels sprouts pattern was best known, but Dedham produced more than 50 patterns, including this rare crab.
Inscribed: Underside, (stamped) 'Dedham/Pottery'
On View at the BMA
