Rare and Fine Five-Gallon Stoneware Crock with Cobalt Chicken Pecking Corn Decoration, Stamped "J. & E. NORTON / BENNINGTON, VT.", circa 1855, cylindrical crock with tooled shoulder, semi-rounded rim, and applied lug handles, decorated with a large slip-trailed design of a chicken pecking kernels of corn from a stylized ground filled with shrubs. Cobalt highlights to maker's mark and capacity mark. A visually-appealing and difficult-to-find Norton motif. Scattered exfoliation to surface. Two Y-shaped lines to front, each measuring approximately 6 1/2". An approximately 1 1/2" glazed-over iron ping to side of crock near base and a small glazed-over iron ping to far right side of crock's front at base.