Mid Atlantic 1 Gallon Blue Decorated Stoneware Pitcher

Circa 1830-1860: This one gallon pitcher from the Mid-Atlantic region features a large and unusual vertically positioned flower along with other motifs linked to both the Baltimore MD and Richmond VA general locales. The pitcher's collar is dressed with a one gallon impressed capacity stamp that closely parallels marks found in Curtis Rice's James River Stoneware & the S.S. Perry Connection (Dietz Press 2017) and Eric C. Jenkins' Cermaics in Virginia: 19th Century Stoneware from the Lower James River Valley (Gasch Printing 2019) and attributed by both authors to Virginia potteries run by Stephen B. Sweeney. However, the pitcher form does not match that of Sweeney's known production and more closely resembles pitchers made by David Parr both at Rocketts Landing and in Baltimore. Because the pitcher does not have an Albany slip interior, Eastern Pennsylvania is out of the running as a place of the pitcher's origin. We feel this mystery pitcher may serve as a missing link for wares made in Virginia and Maryland by potters and decorators who may have worked in both states, but that is a job for scholars to unravel. The pitcher does have a very tight crow's foot on the bottom that does run up the side a few inches, a minute spout nick, and various as fired factory anomalies, including a couple kiln kisses, but it is priced accordingly, especially condsidering its possible historical importance.