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The latest book on distinguished Red Wing Stoneware is an impressive one.

Red Wing Stoneware Encyclopedia by Dan De Pasquale and Larry Peterson offers an amazing array of products from one of America’s finest stoneware manufacturers.

Hundreds and hundreds of items are colorfully illustrated along with current values. Red Wing is understandably highly collectible and some of the prices clearly reflect it from the plain salt glaze churns in the one gallon size listing at $250 to $350, to the Red Wing Success Filter complete with black stamp and original list at $1,300 to $1,400.

As the authors point out the upper Midwest has long been a “Mecca for early stoneware production.” Early utilitarian wares were typically the work of smaller potters, which were eventually surpassed by two larger companies—the Western Stoneware Company and the Red Wing Stoneware Company. The second firm is the clear focus of the book.

True to its title the volume presents an extensive selection of this ‘Cadillac’ of stoneware makers. Specific selections of the book include general stoneware, kitchen stoneware, and various jugs.

Prolifically presented in the general stoneware chapter are crocks, water coolers, churns, spittoons, chamber pots, and chicken feeders among other items. The kitchen chapter turns to bean pots, butter crocks, bowls, nappies, pitchers, mugs, pantry jars, refrigerator jars, and other kitchen-related wares.

In the book’s introduction the authors make reference to early stoneware collectors who were sometimes content with any piece “as long as it was signed.” They report now “new collectors have done their homework and seem to target specific, high quality items for their collection,” such as advertising ware, salt glaze items, and other hard to find items.

Red Wing Stoneware Encyclopedia by Dan De Pasquale and Larry Peterson, hardcover, color illustrated, 224 pages, $29.95 plus shipping from Collector Books, 1-800-626-5420.

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