Description:
English unglazed red stoneware mug attributed to David (b.1656) and John Philip (b.1664) Elers. Originally trained as silversmiths, the Elers brothers immigrated to England from Holland around 1688 following William III. They had learned the potter's trade in Cologne and Delft, and by 1690 were producing stoneware in Vauxhall, a part of London. Their stonewares were in direct competition with those of John Dwight (c.1635-1703) of Fulham, the holder of two patents for stoneware includin one for "Opaceous Redd, and Darke-coloured Porcellane." Dwight sued the Elers for patent infringement, and they relocated their operation to Bradwell Wood, Staffordshire in 1693. Red stoneware mugs and teapots were the Elers' primary products, and Chinese Yixing stoneware inspired their shapes and decoration. Their vessels were slip cast in molds and highly finished on a rotating lathe. Often small prunus blossoms and branches, such as this "tea-branch motif", were applied to ornament the surface of their stoneware. Very few pieces of the Elers' pottery survive to the present day. This shape of mug, which was very popular at the end of the 17th into the early 18th century, would have been caled a 'fine gorge', a term that only seems to be applied to stoneware. The shape is also seen in silver. The brownish-purple slipcast mug has a globular body and a broad, cylindrical, rilled neck; attached grooved strap handle above a detached round terminal; mold-applied decoration on front of a prunus branch bearing two blossoms and a leaf; and an extremely smooth, lathe-turned surface. The darker color of the stoneware is frequently attributable to accidental reduction while in an oven without regard to the geographic origin of the clay. The iron content in the clay was converted from ferric oxide to ferrous oxide which resulted in a darker color.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.032 |
