Goblet Flowerpot
This small press-molded flower pot is exactly the kind of “fancy article” Shaffner produced in the early years of his pottery. The mold for this piece is in the Wachovia Historical Society Collection (see image below). The model used to make the mold was almost certainly based on a press molded glass form. Jeffrey Evans supported my speculation about this by adding, that the pattern is “a stylized version of the Roman Rosette pattern [in pressed glass]. The form is that of an English rummer or just a chalice. [There’s] nothing exactly like it in glass, but [it is] certainly loosely based on glass from the 1830’s.”
Ex. Coll: Frank Horton and Brad Rauschenberg at separate times.
“Schaffner…arrived in Salem in 1833. An industrious sort, Schaffner was placed with John Holland but shortly found that he could not remain in that situation and applied for permission to open his own shop. He was allowed to purchase the old 1766 [Builder’s House] near the northwest boundary of Salem, the members of the Collegium stating at the same time that they [regretted…that Schaffner could not take over the pottery altogether in Holland’s place; the latter shows little zeal in carrying it on.] Schaffner carried on what evidently was an excellent trade in both fancy and utilitarian wares, though his shop increasingly had to compete with inexpensive and readily available imported ironstone and other such manufactured ware. The heyday of the potteries in Wachovia had occurred in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when there was no competition from the outside. Nonetheless, Schaffner’s pottery continued to operate until the end of the century – after the 1870’s in the hands of Schaffner’s former apprentice, Daniel Krause, who was Salem’s last potter.” (Bivins & Welshimer, p.38-39)
