Stoneware water cooler
date: label: date made
content: early 1800s
notes: label: Description
content: By the 1790s, American potters began to experiment with producing utilitarian household forms made of stoneware clay. Manufacture of this sturdy, impermeable wear was well advanced in Europe by this time. However, it was necessary for potters in the New World to locate suitable clays, and acquire the skills and technology necessary for the sophisticated demands of refining and firing stoneware.
label: Description
content: Most stoneware was wheel-thrown, fired at extremely high temperatures (1200-1300 degrees centigrade), and formed of clay found primarily in New Jersey and the Carolinas. A smooth finish was obtained by the application of one of a number of glaze types. Depending on economic pressures or local custom, stoneware was most often covered with a clear salt-glaze, a thick brown "Albany slip" glaze, or a wood ash glaze that fired in glossy browns and greens. Salt-glazed stonewares were often slip or brush decorated with cobalt oxide, one of the few coloring options able to withstand the high temperatures in a stoneware kiln.
label: Description
content: The National Museum of American History houses a large and important collection of utilitarian stonewares made in the United States from the late 1700s through the mid 1800s. These simple types of wares were indispensible tools in food storage and preparation in the United States for over two hundred and fifty years, until advances in refrigeration and canning reduced the demand for traditional utilitarian pottery after the late 1800s.
label: Description
content: This early 1800s salt-glazed stoneware water pitcher is decorated with a man holding an arrow and standing in a tree, and is thought to
label: Description
content: illustrate Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1845 poem "The Arrow and Song."
label: Description
content: "I shot an arrow in the air
label: Description
content: It fell to earth, I know not where
label: Description
content: Long, long afterward in an oak
label: Description
content: I found the arrow still unbroke."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John Paul Remensnyder
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.0803.195
label: accession number
content: 1977.0803
label: catalog number
content: 1977.0803.195
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cooler, water
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, blue (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, stoneware, coarse (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall approximate: 16 in x 13 in; 40.64 cm x 33.02 cm