Ceramics
Barnstaple or Bideford, North Devon, England, United Kingdom, Europe
1698
Earthenware (slipware, buff-bodied); Lead glaze
Thrown, Slip decorated, Sgraffito
1964.0025
Object Number1964.0025 |
Jug (Harvest jug or pitcher)
Ceramics
Museum purchase with funds provided by Charles K. Davis fund
Barnstaple or Bideford, North Devon, England, United Kingdom, Europe
1698
1. Inscription; On ladies bust; Sgraffito "1698"
2. Inscription; Band around shoulder; Sgraffito script "Kinde Sr: i Com to Gratifiey youre Kindness Love and/and Courtisey and Sarve youre table with Strong Beare for this/intent i was sent here: or if you pleas i will Supply youre workmen when in/Harvist dry when thy doe labour hard and Sweate good drinke i[s] better far then Mea[t]."
American ownership history (foreign manuf)
Earthenware (slipware, buff-bodied); Lead glaze
Thrown, Slip decorated, Sgraffito
11.299 (H) , 10.197 (L) , 10.039 (Diam)
28.7 (H) , 25.9 (L) , 25.5 (Diam)
Diameter measurement is at widest point. Length measurement includes handle.
The 1698 date on this fine and large harvest jug is unusually early. Few vessels of this type have early histories in America, but according to a june 13, 1960-dated letter in the Winterthur files, featuring the remarks of Mrs. Celeste Sammons Kelton of Hockessin, Delaware, this "Wine pitcher used by British [Soldiers] during Revolutionary War. Entered this country in Southern Delaware." The jug, passed down through the daughters of the family, descended from the Turner family, near Chipman's Mill, Delaware, to a Mrs. Susan Walls of Middleford, DE (near Seaford), eventually being given to Mrs. Kelton. Before this, the history of the pitcher is unknown.
In 1963, when a the jug was offered for sale to Winterthur, the vessel was at Zwanendael House in Lewes, DE.
[Chapter] Grigsby, Leslie B. English Slipware in Colonial America [Book] Dunsmore, Amanda. 2011 This Blessed Pot, This Earth: English Pottery Studies in Honour of Jonathan Horne. 150-158.
• Published: p. 152, fig. 1.
[Article] Watkins, C. Malcolm. 1960 North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century. National Museum Bulletin.
• Published: (page and Illustration number unknown)
[Article] Winton, Calhoun. 1965 John Gay and a Devon Jug. Winterthur Portfolio. 2 (1965): 62-64.
• Published: discussing poet John Gay and inscription on Winterthur jug.
[Book] Grant, Alison. 1983 North Devon Pottery: The Seventeenth Century.
• 17th and early 18th century sgraffito harvest jugs: frontispiece, inscribed "IL 1669"; opp. p. 101, pl. 31, bears rhyme and 1703.
[Catalogue] Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth NH (auction catalogue).
• Sgraffito cradle possibly by same hand: February 22-23, 2008, lot 410, with very similar lady's bust inscribed "98".
[Article] Outlaw, Merry Abbitt. 2002 Scratched in Clay: Seventeenth Century North Devon Slipware at Jamestown, Virginia. Ceramics in America. 17-38.
• Discussion of range of excavated North Devon sgraffito wares: see full article