Description:
Molded U-shaped cup or bowl of a larger size than a tea cup (perhaps breakfast cup or small bowl). The cup has an applied foot rim. Modern labels on the underside of the cup read: "ZEITLIN COLLECTION/ WH 111" and a second circular label "AGATE WARE c. 1750/ ??? 338/ unmarked" (David and Charlotte Zeitlin, Philadelphia (Merion), Pennsylvania, were Wedgwood collectors.) Different colors of clay (blue, dark brown, light brown, cream-colored) have been wedged together to recreate the variegated appearance of agate stone. This version of agateware is called laid agate as opposed to thrown agateware. In 1773, Deerfield merchants John Williams (1751-1816) and James Upham purchased large agate cups, ½ pint bowls, and sugar bowls from Ebenezer Bridgham in Boston for sale back home.
Label Text:
Massachusetts account books document the first arrivals of these stylish Rococo ceramics. The earliest references occur in a 1758 invoice to merchant Samuel Abbott (1732-1812) of Boston. Among a large assortment of white salt-glazed stonewares, delftwares, tortoiseshell wares, and blackwares, he purchased large and small “Vined Agat Teapots.” Advertisements in Boston listed the sale of these solid agate teawares from 1765 to 1774. Given their frequent appearance in account books, probate records, and newspapers, agatewares also proved extremely popular in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and the surrounding Connecticut River Valley towns. But at the time of their purchase in the early 1770s (15 years later than their first arrival in Boston), they had become less than fashionable. In 1773, for instance, the daybook of Deerfield merchant Elijah Williams lists the sale of “large Agate Teapots” and sets of “agate cups and saucers,” and in the same year, Deerfield merchants John Williams (1751-1816) and James Upham purchased large agate cups, ½ pint bowls, and sugar bowls from Ebenezer Bridgham in Boston for sale back home. Farther south in the Valley, the 1772-1774 invoice book of Samuel Boardman of Wethersfield, Connecticut, shows that he purchased agateware teapots, sugar dishes, and cups and saucers. Fisher Gay of Farmington, Connecticut, documented his sales in 1768-1774 of agateware sugar dishes, teapots, milk pots, cups and saucers as well as small agate plates. The majority of these lower Valley merchants were supplied by New York City’s Frederick Rhinelander.
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+2025.6.1 |
