Description:
German stoneware jug with an elongated straight neck, bulbous belly, flared foot, applied strap handle, and obvious circular marks on base from being cut off the potter's wheel as it moved, which is covered with an iron-rich slip over a salt-glazed surface creating a mottled effect often called "tigerware." The jug also has an applied silver mount over the rim, neck, and handle of the mug; the silver is engraved with Mannerist-style strapwork decoration, and the initials "IA / S" for John and Alicia Stalham of Norwich, England, the mug's original owners, and a scratched inscription on the upper rim for "Elizabeth Williams 1597." High on the list of European goods taken to the New World of British North America were stonewares from the Rhineland area of Germany. These sturdy ceramics, ideally suited for long-distance transportation, were traded through the English market or by Dutch dealers purchasing directly from the stoneware manufacturers. Forms like this jug were useful for serving beer, ale, and cider. This example is very unusual in having an unbroken history of ownership in the Williams family of Massachusetts. The Stalham's daughter, Elizabeth Stalham (c.1597-1674), married Robert Williams (1607-1690) and emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637, taking this family piece with them. After her death, the jug was passed down through several generations of the Williams family of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Deerfield's minister John Williams (1664-1729) might have enjoyed a beverage from this mug when he visited Robert and Elizabeth, his grandparents, next door in Roxbury, Massachusetts, or his first cousin Elizabeth Williams Tucker (1672-1740). As this heirloom passed from generation to generation, its existence was recorded in probate inventories, such as David Weld's listing of "pitcher silver mounted 2 [dollars]", as well as in preserved in hand-written notes. In the early 20th century, Mrs. Hannah M. Childs of Kansas City, Missouri, noted her father had purchased it at the sale of David Weld's belongings as "a remembrance of him."
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2005.5 |
