This Henderson Foot Warmer is part of the General Store exhibit at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.
This Henderson Foot Warmer is part of the General Store exhibit at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.
A stoneware foot warmer is part of the General Store exhibit at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum. It is known as the Henderson Foot Warmer — a popular item in the days before central heat. It was produced and sold by George Henderson (b. 1862, d. 1928) at his pottery known as the Dorchester Pottery Works located in the community of Dorchester in Boston, Mass.
At one time, a foot warmer was a very much appreciated item to have, that is before central heat was developed to warm the home. This item is much like a water bottle only it is made of stoneware. The same principle exists: Fill it with hot water on a cold winter night and then tuck it under the blankets at the foot of the bed. Soon your bed will be warm enough to snuggle into it in comfort. Before central heat was available, the temperature inside could drop low enough to create ice on the inside of the window! So, getting into bed between the sheets was a very cold experience in earlier times.
Other folks called the warmer by another name. Some would call it a “Ceramic or Porcelain Pig”, “Bed Pig”, “China Pig”, or just “Piggy”! One would think that people may have actually slept with a live pig the way it was spoken of, however, that is not the case. The word pig is Scottish and means round pot or container. Henderson’s design became so popular that the market still remains saturated with them. Even though they are antiques, there are so many that the dollar value remains low.
Our warmer is a squash-shaped stoneware container that stands about 11 inches tall. At its widest point in the center, it is probably about 6 inches, with the top and bottom about 4 inches across. It has a rubber seal that helps keep the hot water from leaking out. Many other different warmers were marketed by other companies some having more rounded shapes and others elongated. Henderson designed his foot warmer. He also got a patent for “new and useful improvement in taps or nipples for earthenware containers.” He designed a metal screw-off tap that replaced the rubber stopper. The pottery made his foot warmer until around 1920.
This fine stoneware piece comes from a company that left an impressive legacy. The company was founded by Henderson in 1885. Stoneware was produced for 80 years before the company closed its doors in 1979. Each piece made has the stamp of the company imprinted into the clay itself. At first, the product was mainly utilitarian items such as jugs, pots, jars, and other specialty items like the foot warmer. Later on, tableware was introduced. The tableware was decorated cobalt blue using a special “blue slip.” The glaze used was a “Bristol Glaze” which was imported from England. The tableware was designed and decorated with many patterns. A popular one was the pine cone. All of this was cooked in a very large coal/wood-fired kiln.
Around 1863 when Henderson was still a baby, his parents immigrated from Londonderry County, Northern Ireland, to the United States, settling in Connecticut. He and his wife, Margaret, came to Dorchester to start their own business after he worked as a potter with S.L. Pewtress Pottery in New Haven, Conn. They built their home next to the industrial factory they purchased and raised a family while the company grew. It was his son, Charles, and his wife that continued the business after his passing.
He built a very large beehive kiln, so impressive that it is now a historic site. It has an inside diameter of 22 feet with a 60-foot chimney rising from the building. The inside height at the center of the kiln is 10 1/2 feet with the sides being 6 1/2 feet tall. The kiln was large enough to fire hundreds of clay pieces at one time so that it only needed to operate three or four times a year. Coal and wood were delivered to the factory on a nearby railroad. Problems with heavy smoke settling into the community while the kiln ran forced Henderson to change over to gas and smaller kilns were used. The smaller kilns caused business to slow through the years and there was limited product. Customers were limited to two items. It became a small, family-run business with only four family members working. The pottery still remained popular up until the doors closed. It continues to be popular among collectors.
The Dorchester community recognized the kiln as their own community treasure and they tried to develop it into a museum without success. The home and other buildings had been lost in separate fires through the years. The Dorchester Historical Society was able to get the kiln put on the National Register of Historic Places. They have also preserved the history of the company and its products by developing a digital collection. The collection can be seen online through the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The collection contains many photographs of the different stoneware pieces that were made at the pottery works along with the full history of the company.
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