Fine 9 1/4" New Geneva PA Tanware Pitcher

Circa 1880-1900: This gorgeous 9.25" New Geneva, Pennsylvania, tanware pitcher features a bevy of classic southwest Pennsylvania freehand decorative motifs: a swag decorated spout, two thick stripes, comma decoration on the collar, two large vining fuschias, and even a profusely dotted handle. On top of that, this pitcher survives in absolutely as made condition with no chips, cracks, or repairs and bright, glossy albany slip freehand brushwork. Tanware was made in Southwestern Pennsylvania primarily in New Geneva -- but also in Greensboro -- and sold mostly to tourists who stopped there on river boats traveling up and down the Monongahela River. This fancily painted and unusual stoneware differed from the region's blue decorated and salt glazed pottery in two ways. First, the vessels were decorated on the exterior with an Albany slip, which was traditionally used to cover an object's interior, rather than Pennsylvania's more familiar bright cobalt oxide. Second, there was no salt added to a tanware kiln, and this gave the undecorated portion of the pottery a matte finish and left the clay its natural tan hue. Tanware was only produced along the Monongahela for the final two decades of the 19th century, thus making it much harder to find than its traditional blue decorated cousins. Provenance: Mike Pell, Nancy Goff.