Pitcher, "Peace and Independence"
notes: label: Description
content: This transfer printed creamware mug is decorated with a military motif on one side and a Masonic motif on the other. The military motif consists of a circular panel that reads “Peace and Independence.” It’s surrounded by a canon, an American eagle with outstretched wings, and an American flag with sixteen stars. The other side depicts several symbols of the Masonic order similar to those shown on a Masonic tracing board. Prominent members of society were often Freemasons, counting founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington among their ranks. The elevated social status of Masons means that many masonic themes are found on creamware pitchers of this era.
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: 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.63.132
label: catalog number
content: 63.132
label: accession number
content: 248619
label: collector/donor number
content: 45-366
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 (joint piece production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 11/16 in x 8 in x 5 1/2 in; 19.52625 cm x 20.32 cm x 13.97 cm