Pitcher, "The Brig Elizabeth"
notes: label: Description
content: This transfer printed creamware pitcher is decorated with a dramatic scene of a brig caught in a storm. Under the print is its title, “The Brig Elizabeth Wrecked 1.st December 1821.” Beneath the spout is a medallion with the name “S. Davee.” On the reverse is the print titled “An Emblem for America.” It depicts the allegorical figure of Columbia holding a flag and showing two dark skinned Native Americans or Africans images of men involved in the discovery of North America and the founding of the United States. Christopher Columbus, “Americus” Vespucci, Sir Walter Raleigh, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams are depicted. There are black ink accents on the spout, lip, handle, and base of the jug. The brig Elizabeth, her cargo, and two men were lost in a storm on December 1, 1822. The print “An Emblem for America” is based on one engraving in a series by John Fairburn of London, published in 1798. Robert H. McCauley purchased this jug from Mrs. P. H. Safford of Fitchburg, MA on August 28, 1939 for $100.
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: Military
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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.63.104
label: catalog number
content: 63.104
label: accession number
content: 252565
label: collector/donor number
content: 361
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pitcher
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (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: 9 5/16 in x 10 in x 8 in; 23.65375 cm x 25.4 cm x 20.32 cm