Cobalt Blue and White Stoneware Oval Baker with Impressed Ship's Wheel Mark and B-3 on the Unglazed Base
This is a cobalt blue and white stoneware oval baker, a deep, handleless oval baking dish. It is glazed bright glossy cobalt blue outside and glossy white inside, with a raised rounded ridge running around the outside just below the rim and an unglazed buff base. Near one end, the base is impressed with a wheel mark that looks like a ship's wheel (a hub, an outer ring, about twelve spokes running past the ring, and two filled wedges) with B - 3 above it. No maker's name or country appears, and the maker is unidentified.
Help identify this item
We could not identify this piece. If you know the maker, the name, the year or where it came from, please tell us below. Photos of a marked copy help most.
Help identify the ship's wheel mark
We have not matched this impressed wheel mark to a pottery yet. The two-tone glaze (cobalt outside, white inside) on a plain oval baker with an unglazed base was used by many stoneware makers, so the mark is the best clue. If you know which pottery used a wheel with a filled wedge and B-series numbers, please add it below.
A cobalt blue oval baker with a white glazed interior
This cobalt blue oval stoneware baker is a deep, handleless oval baking dish with gently sloped sides, a flat base and a plain rounded rim. The outside is glazed blue, a bright glossy cobalt or royal blue, and the inside is glazed white, a clean glossy white with a slight gray cast. Left unglazed, the base shows the buff, a pale putty beige, stoneware body.
The only decoration is in the form: a raised rounded ridge runs all the way around the outside a short way below the rim, setting off a narrow cobalt band at the top, and the thin white rim edge shows where the interior glaze wraps over the lip. Inside, it is plain white with no pattern. It has no handles, lugs or tab ears, so the dish is lifted by the rim.
The mark is impressed into the unglazed base near one end, centered on the long axis: a wheel with a small open circular hub, an outer ring and about twelve straight spokes that run through the ring and stick out past it like the handles of a ship's wheel. One wedge between two spokes inside the ring, and one wedge-shaped flag hanging below the ring at the lower left, are filled in, and cobalt glaze has settled into the lines of the mark. Above it, B - 3 is impressed in small plain block capitals and numerals with a spaced hyphen. No maker's name or country appears.
On this copy: roughly 12 inches long, estimated from the hand in the photos (not measured). The white interior shows fine crazing lines and gray utensil marks, with a small rough or flaked spot near the rim at one end. Outside, the cobalt glaze has light scratches and small white specks, the rim edge has small nicks, and the unglazed base has a gray scuffed ring from use.
- Shape: Deep oval baker, sloped sides, no handles, raised ridge below the rim
- Material: Glazed stoneware with an unglazed buff base
- Outside: Blue, a bright glossy cobalt or royal blue
- Inside: White, glossy with a slight gray cast
- Base: Unglazed, buff or pale putty beige
- Mark: Impressed wheel with spokes past the rim and two filled wedges, like a ship's wheel
- Number: B - 3 impressed above the wheel
- Maker: Not named on the base; unidentified
- This copy: Roughly 12 in. long (estimated); interior crazing and utensil marks, rim nicks, scuffed base
Base (impressed, above the wheel mark): B - 3
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About the Cobalt Oval Baker, Ship's Wheel B-3 Mark
What pottery uses a ship's wheel mark on the bottom?
We have not confirmed it. This baker's mark is an impressed wheel with spokes running past the rim and two filled wedges, with B - 3 above it. If you have a piece with the same mark and a name, please share it.
What does B-3 mean on my baking dish?
It is impressed next to the maker's mark and is most likely a shape or size number, but no source confirms the system for this maker.
How do I identify a cobalt blue stoneware baker like this?
Check the base for an impressed or printed mark, note whether the base is glazed, and compare the rim and any raised ridges. This design has a raised ridge below the rim, no handles, a white interior and an unglazed buff base.
- Owner's photos