A fantastic antique fire bucket with a perfect patina. It just came out of an old New England house. It was donated by the senior owners for sale to benefit the local church. The house was one of those referred to as “(insert family name) house”. I just can’t for the life of me recall the name. It was an old local family either way. This beautiful bucket has four legible characters on it. They are most assuredly the first four letters of the name of the town/city the bucket saw service in. They are “Wick”. The bucket came out of southeast Massachusetts when I acquired it. The nearest town starting with “Wick” is Wickford, Rhode Island. Wickford is a very old (1600’s) town on the coast of RI, very near Newport. It’s the type of town that very much would have had fire buckets made to serve the needs of the townspeople. I can’t say with 100% certainty that this bucket is from Wickford but I think it’s by far the most likely source. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an 18th century example, but it could be early 19th century as well. They are a bit hard to date. The condition is pretty dang good for its age. The outer patina really couldn’t be better. There is an unfortunate crack in the leather on the bottom of the bucket but it’s not visible when on display. The leather straps holding the rope handle to the bucket via iron rings are very likely later replacements but that’s pretty common for these. It looks like a million dollars when on display. It stands about 11.5” tall not including handle. I’d love to see this stay local so I hope a new englander buys it. Ships ASAP! Thanks