Pitcher, "The Joiners Arms"
date: label: date made
content: ca 1805
notes: label: Description
content: This transfer printed creamware pitcher is decorated with a print of the Joiners' Arms on one side and a motif of "Washington's Tomb" on the other. The crest of “The Joiner’s Arms” features the motto “Join truth with trust,” a shield, and tools of the joiner’s or carpenter’s trade. The motif of Washington’s tomb depicts a monument commemorating Washington’s death surrounded by a chain of states which omits Vermont and Rhode Island, but includes Kentucky. The monument is an obelisk decorated with the All Seeing Eye and the phrase “First in war, first in peace, first in fame, first in virtue.” Various figures are shown mourning at the monument. Under the spout, included in a medallion, is the phrase “May America never want artillery to defend her rights,” a phrase wishing peace upon the new American republic. Below that is the name “Simeon Hall” and a flower. It is currently unclear who Simeon Hall is. George Washington is the most common figure depicted on English creamware pitchers of this period. His death in 1799 led to an outpouring of commemorative products celebrating his life and mourning his death. Robert H. McCauley purchased this pitcher from F.O. Bailey Co. of Portland, ME on May 3, 1939 for $37.50.
label: Description
content: This pitcher is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark on the pitcher to tell us who made it, but it is characteristic of wares made in large volume for the American market in both Staffordshire and Liverpool between 1790 and 1820. Pitchers of this shape, with a cream colored glaze over a pale earthenware clay, known as Liverpool type, were the most common vessels to feature transfer prints with subjects commemorating events and significant figures in the early decades of United States’ history. Notwithstanding the tense relationship between Britain and America, Liverpool and Staffordshire printers and potters seized the commercial opportunity offered them in the production of transfer printed earthenwares celebrating the heroes, the military victories, and the virtues of the young republic, and frequently all of these things at once.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Liverpool
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Work
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content: American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: McCauley Liverpool Pottery
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Robert H. McCauley
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.63.124
label: catalog number
content: 63.124
label: accession number
content: 248881
label: collector/donor number
content: 351
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pitcher
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, black (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, earthenware, refined (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: transfer printed (joint piece production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 1/8 in x 9 3/4 in x 6 1/2 in; 25.7175 cm x 24.765 cm x 16.51 cm