The Victorian woman was familiar with common stoneware such as that shown in illustration 27 and such as these three Canadian-made pieces. Her skill in household management amazed newcomers. Mrs. Edward Copleston, arriving from England in 1856 and faced with household tasks for which she had no training, praised the way a Canadian girl with "an average education" was both accomplished in drawing-room arts and capable in the kitchen. "How sensible does the system in Canada appear," was her summing up in Canada: Why we Live in it and Why we Like it (1861).
The name of Orrin L. Ballard, potting in St. Johns, Canada East, in the late 1850s, appears on the storage crock at the left; that of E.L. Farrar, working in Iberville across the Richelieu River after fire destroyed the family pottery in St. Johns in 1876, is on the churn; the name of G.I. Lazier, potting in Picton, Canada West between 1864 and 1879, can be seen on the crock with the ornate dog handles.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (S81-25)
