A woman's legacy comes to auction
Joyce Blyth sells the pottery that built her book
Joyce Blyth pictured with her book Jugs & Crocks of the Guelph Merchants, a practical index and guide to the pottery used by Guelph, Ontario’s earliest merchants.
In 1982 Joyce Blyth told a story that might have been lost forever. Her book, Jugs and Crocks of the Guelph Merchants was geared to collectors and historians as a practical index and guide to the pottery used by Guelph, Ontario’s earliest merchants. Never before had an author produced a complete “who’s who” listing of the commercial businesses in the City of Guelph’s earliest days. It illustrates the players that struggled to survive in a setting we wouldn’t recognize today; one of dusty dirt roads with horse and buggies, deals made with ‘cash on the barrel’, and hardworking merchants fighting for their families to offer more value than the business next door.
The most unique part about Blyth’s book is that she tells it through her rare collection of jugs and crocks. In an interview, she explains how a passion for collecting pottery became a literary adventure. “For years, I’d been collecting jugs and crocks from the Guelph area. I found them fascinating and beautiful and decided I needed to find out more about them.” In the introduction to her book she writes, “I have tried simply to explore, identify and illustrate all of Guelph’s merchant names marked on the crocks and jugs”. Blyth used her jugs and crocks - which were in some cases the only surviving evidence of a merchant’s existence - as the guideposts for her book. It is a complete documentation of Guelph’s earliest merchants, and remains Southwestern Ontario’s only historical offering of its kind.
The Robert Rutherford two-gallon jug pictured on the front of Joyce’s book is offered as lot 147 in Miller & Miller’s June 5th sale.
Joyce has decided it is time to sell the jugs and crocks that built her book. They will be sold to the highest bidder through Miller & Miller Auctions on June 5th along with her late husband Don’s lifelong collection of Canadiana. Joyce admits “the time has come” to pass on her four-decade-long collection to the next generation. Her decision has afforded collectors and local historians an unprecedented opportunity to own what it took her and her husband a lifetime to gather. It includes the rarest jugs and crocks from merchants of the Guelph area and beyond who plied their trades well before Confederation.
Joyce explains that long before glass and plastics were available, merchants relied on these heavy, fragile and often cumbersome pottery vessels to sell their wares. “Pottery jugs and crocks were used to handle, transport and store anything that needed to be contained, such as molasses, vinegar, spirits, turpentine, oils, butter, lard, sausage, bacon and much more”. The potters did a thriving business in those days too. According to Blyth, Guelph merchants sourced their pottery from the nearest commercial potteries available, “which would have been Brantford Potters, Schuler in Paris, Eberhardt in Toronto, Glass Brothers in London, and others”. But despite the fact that most of the jugs and crocks in Blyth’s collection were made by these same few potters, they were not created equally.
If a piece of stoneware is stamped by the merchant the value can increase substantially. “Merchants had their names stamped on pottery as a form of advertising with the hope the patronage would be returned with the container ware”, Blyth writes in her book. While the stamps often indicate the merchant’s name and location, additional lines of information can also add historical value. For instance, a one gallon jug in Blyth’s collection (lot 164) is stamped, “Loaned by | Jackson & Son | Grocers | Guelph | Return to them only”. These words add context, meaning and generate interest to collectors.
This Jackson & Son one-gallon jug is offered as lot 164 in the sale.
Another factor that makes stoneware collectible is whether it is decorated. Potters on occasion would decorate their wares using cobalt oxide (which fired to a rich blue). Floral motifs are the most common, followed by birds, then in rare instances, animals. Among Blyth’s Collection is an F. P. Goold, Brantford Pottery three-gallon jug decorated in cobalt slip with a race horse (lot 224). It is estimated to sell between $8,000-$12,000. Joyce recalls cashing in bonds to buy it in partnership with her late husband Don. “It will be interesting to see what it brings”, she said.
This rare F. P. Goold, Brantford Pottery three-gallon jug is offered as lot 224 in the June 5th sale.
Another star of Blyth’s Collection is featured on the cover of Jugs & Crocks of the Guelph Merchants. The two-gallon jug stamped with “Robt. Rutherford, Guelph,” (lot 147) boasts an outstanding bird decoration and is estimated to sell for $4,000-$5,000.
Lot 147 in the sale is this Robert Rutherford, Guelph two-gallon jug
Figures of Guelph’s political past also make their appearance. Lot 68, a two-gallon jug stamped “John Smith Grocer, General Dealer and Produce Buyer, Guelph CW”, features a rare, incised “sgraffito” floral decoration (created by scratching the outer layer to reveal coloured underglazes below). Smith’s role as Grocer positioned him well for a future in politics. He became Guelph’s first Reeve, then the city’s first Mayor in 1856.
This John Smith, Guelph C.W. two-gallon jug is offered as lot 68 in the sale.
Worried that her jugs and crocks might “get lost” in a museum or archives, Blyth feels she has done the right thing by dispersing them at auction. “Let people enjoy them,” she said. Her late husband Don felt the same way. Like the book she wrote nearly four decades ago, the stories of the jugs and crocks she collected will live on.
Joyce and the late Don Blyth were ‘pioneer’ collectors. In fact, they could easily be considered Guelph, Ontario’s private historical curators. Their country farm on the outskirts of Guelph was considered by many as the finest local museum imaginable. The collection includes everything from early Ontario jugs, crocks and bottles to hunting decoys and a rare 1884 Winchester Cartridge Display Board that is estimated to sell as high as $25,000. In all, 289 pieces are up for auction and each tells an important story.
By Nancy Silcox & Ethan Miller
Nancy Silcox, of New Hamburg, is a former teacher and university counsellor. She has written 14 books, most of them historical biographies.
Ethan Miller is co-owner of Miller & Miller Auctions.
Auction Details:
Canadiana & Sporting
The Don & Joyce Blyth Collection
June 5, 2021
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