Stoneware Jug
date: label: date made
content: 1824-50
notes: label: Description
content: This salt-glazed stoneware jug was made by Israel Seymour in Troy, New York between 1824 and 1850. It features an ovoid shape with a maker’s stamp above an incised bird perched on a leaf with a small bird on its back. Like designs on many stoneware vessels made in New York in the early 19th century, the bird motif is done in cobalt, a metal oxide that does not lose its color in the heat of the kiln. This is a form of decoration long used in Central Europe. The New York potters used cobalt imported from Europe, which was expensive, but little was needed to produce the characteristic strong blue. The motifs inscribed or painted on the surface have their technical origins in the European stoneware tradition, but in America potters developed their own repertoire of designs that referred to their New World context, such as patriotic subjects of the American eagle with the flag and arrows, and naval scenes depicting the War of 1812. Common subjects are birds, including recognizable species like pigeons, doves, peahens, sandpipers, and chickens, as well as others that are entirely fanciful.
label: Description
content: Israel Seymour was in the pottery business in Troy before 1816, when his partnership with David F. Seborn was dissolved. Seymour came from a family of potters well known in West Hartford, Connecticut, and appears to have arrived in Troy on the Hudson via Albany. In Troy, Seymour married Sarah Church, and in 1816 his father-in-law, Nathaniel Church, became his new partner. This was the first of many partnerships in a long and successful business career for Seymour, who also made earthenware pottery alongside stoneware. In 1827 he claimed "the right of manufacturing, the patent Stone-Ware MILK-PANS" developed by a new partner, Sanford S. Perry.
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Food
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Preston R. Bassett
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0577.11
label: accession number
content: 1979.0577
label: catalog number
content: 1979.577.11
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Jug
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, blue (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, stoneware, coarse (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 3/4 in; 34.925 cm