Pitcher, "Jefferson"
notes: label: Description
content: This transfer printed creamware pitcher is decorated with the Arms of the United States on one side and a portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the other. The portrait of Jefferson is framed in an oval medallion designed with leaves and a spiraled ribbon with the names of the first fifteen states alternating with fifteen stars. Over the portrait is the text, “We are all Republicans—all Federalists.” Underneath reads “Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America 1801.” The arms of the United States features a spread-winged eagle with the U.S. shield at its breast clutching arrows in one talon and a laurel branch in the other, in its beak is a scroll that reads “E PLURIBUS UNUM” while 16 stars are above its head. The pitcher touches upon the division between the Federalist Party and the Republican Party in early American and Jefferson’s attempt to reconcile the two.
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: 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.63.154
label: catalog number
content: 63.154
label: accession number
content: 252565
label: collector/donor number
content: 41-315
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pitcher
physicalDescription: 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 (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 3/4 in x 7 1/2 in x 5 1/4 in; 19.685 cm x 19.05 cm x 13.335 cm