Description:
Lobed baluster-shaped Staffordshire pitcher (part of a wash set with the bowl, HD 93.021.2, decorated with the Lawrence Mansion), made by Ralph Stevenson, working in Cobridge between about 1810-1835. The pitcher is decorated with two transfer-printed images in dark blue, the Hartford Deaf and Dumb Asylum and the New York City Almshouse. This water pitcher shows Stevenson's version of this structure. An almost identical view is used by Andrew Stevenson, Clews and Ridgway. The opposite side of this pitcher bears the view of Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Hartford, Conn. Except for a small vegetable dish, this view comes only in various sized pitchers. The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was founded in Hartford in 1815, and with the help of Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, opened on April 29, 1817, the day that Polly (1792-1869) and Rowland (1794-1848) Stebbins, the children of Asa (1767-1844) and Emily Harvey Stebbins (1769-1841) of Deerfield, were enrolled in the first class as the eleventh and twelfth students. Congress donated land for a building that was erected in 1821, shown here as a four-story, classical-style building with pilasters and pediments, five chimneys along the roof line, and four people in front. The source for this transfer-printed view is probably a drawing and engraving by John Warner Barber published in "Connecticut Historical Collections" (1838). Signed plates and platters with this view were also produced by the Ridgway family at the Cauldon Place Works at Shelton, Hanley, Staffordshire, as part of the "Beauties of America" series (see HD 82.011); they were in business between 1814 and about 1840. The earliest view of the New York Alsmhouse was a drawing by C. A. Busby, engraved by W. Hooker, which was published both in Blunt's "Stranger's Guide to the City of New York" (1817) and A. T. Goodrich & Co. in "Picture of New York or the Stranger's Guide" (NY: 1818 edition). The same view was used by Andrew Stevenson, Clews, and Ridgway. The pitcher is supported by a domed foot ring with a scalloped ring around the neck as well as a large, broad, scalloped rim and spout and a molded strap handle, all decorated with blue transfer-printed foliate ornament on the foot ring, rim, spout and handle. This pitcher, part of Stevenson's Vine Border Series, depicts the first school for the deaf and dumb in the United States. This institution was established largely through the influence of the eminent surgeon Mason Fitch Cogswell, whose daughter Alice became deaf very young through illness. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was selected to go to Europe to learn their methods for teaching the deaf. When the school was begun in 1817 Gallaudet was its first principal and Alice Cogswell its first student. In 1821 the school moved to this building on Asylum Hill, where it remained for 100 years. Gallaudet's son Edward Miner Gallaudet founded the first college for the deaf, Gallaudet College (now University) in Washington, D.C. The image of the Asylum is after an engraving by Asaph Williard (1786-1880), who worked in Hartford in 1818. The engraved entitled "View of the Asylum for Deaf & Dumb Persons, Hartford, Con." This view was copied by John Warner Barber for his publication Connecticut Historical Collections in 1836. The Staffordshire firms of J. & W. Ridgway and Andrew Stevenson, and Ralph Stevenson produced ceramics with this pattern.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+93.021.1 |
