Item 10937
 
Coming to you from Doc's Crocks is this wonderful 4 Gallon Churn stamped "Higgins & Co., Cleveland, O."
 
As far as we know, the Higgins Company was a distributor of stoneware made in the Portage/Summit area of Ohio by makers like I.M. Mead whose pottery so closely resembles pottery marked Higgins.  The Higgins Company was in operation at least from 1848-1851 (F. Robert Treichler, A History of Northeast Ohio Stoneware, p. 88). 
 
This beauty features a Squared Rim, Inscribed Shoulder, Applied Handles with Cobalt Accent on the Front, Capacity Number and Advertising Stamped on the Shoulder with Cobalt Accent, and a Large Brushed Cobalt Double Tulip Decoration.  The floral has a stem with twenty leaves holding up two tulip blossoms.  Stands 17 1/4" tall. 
 
Very Good Condition.  Some nibbles and four chips on the inner lid seating ring (1/4" to 1/2"), a 1/2" chip inside the rim and a 3/4" hairline and three chips outside the rim (1/4"to 1/2"), a 6" vertical hairline on the bottom of the right side that wraps under as a Y on the underside (closeup 1).  No cracks, stains, or restoration.  Three drying/firing lines on the bottom edge (1 1/2" to 2 1/2") (closeup 2).
 
Ships double-boxed, insured, and FREE