This jar is one of four surviving pieces of pottery made by Phillip Pointon in the mid-1800s. The pottery shop was erected about 1853 and was located somewhere on the north side of the 300 block of Second Avenue, Baraboo. For nearly five years Phillip Pointon made enough jars, jugs and other wares to keep three wagons delivering to the surrounding towns in central Sauk County.
The pottery was probably made using a potter's wheel powered by a foot treadle, then fired in a wood-fueled kiln.
Philip Pointon was born in England in 1808. He was a superintendent of factories before he came to America. He arrived in Baraboo in 1850. A year later he established a brick yard and "burned" the brick used in many early notable buildings including the 1855 county courthouse, the D.K. Noyes home (now gone) and the old Congregational Church. Pointon used local clay obtained at "Gillson's slough" west of the city near the intersection of Highway 136 and Cornfield Road. After Pointon's death in 1857 the business was sold and was destroyed by fire soon after. Today you can see all four examples of pottery made by Phillip Pointon at the Sauk County Historical Museum at 531 4th Ave, Baraboo
