History of Antique Crocks

Series Summary

In this day and age, history books note the contributions of women such as Betsy Ross and Martha Washington to the Revolutionary War cause. However, these books greatly underestimate the covert rebel activities of other women frequently overlooked as housewives and relatives of the army leaders. Even their husbands, fathers and brothers did not suspect their contributions. When the men got home after a long day of speechifying or shooting at the British, their dinner was on the table, so they assumed that their wives had been at home preparing their meals. But the wives had a revolutionary weapon of their own, one which allowed them to cook in absentia as they sabotaged bridges in Concord or set fire to ammunition storage buildings in Bunker Hill and still be home in time for the evening meal. The English hardly suspected the colonial wives of such devious behavior, but little did they know...

The secret weapon of these colonial cooks was the crock pot, which allowed them to prepare the ingredients for a feast well ahead of time and cook them while they were gone. Due to the slowing-cooking nature of a crock pot, the stew could simmer for hours and still not be overcooked, just in case rebel activities did not go as planned. If you can track down one of the stoneware crocks which served the Paul Reveres and George Washingtons of this world, you could really make Antiques Roadshow viewers green with envy.

In this series of free antique collecting videos, our expert will show you just what to look for in New England crocks that makes them valuable. She discusses how damage affects the values of crocks, as well as how to restore and display them. And of course she discusses their historical value...

Video Transcript

"We're going to talk about stoneware crocks and this is a small sample of stoneware crocks that I want to show you today and mostly New England crocks. Stoneware is a term applied to the potter for a special clay, which when it's fired at a high temperature it creates a hard vitrified surface for the inside of the crocks so that food can easily be sorted in there and the slipware is added to the interior for a glossy, easy way to clean the surface. We also use salt glaze on the outside of the surface to make it smooth and attractive, so that's the really simplified terms that we talk about when we talk about the structure of a crock. Today we will talk a little bit about different shapes of the crocks and the different ways that they were used. So this is a way for you to talk a look at maybe collecting New England Crocks."