Archive for April, 2011

Stoneware beer pitcher, c.1835

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

An impressive three quart baluster shaped stoneware pottery beer pitcher made in Haddonfield, NJ by Carl Wingender between 1820 and 1850. Jug has a hinged pewter lid and is decorated with an incised floral motif filled in with cobalt blue slip.

Pitcher measures 12-3/4″ tall.

A hefty metal replacement handle was added after the original stoneware handle broke off, no doubt due to the extreme weight of the jug and its contents. Or due to the clumsiness of an inebriated drinker.

The original “make-do” repair incorporated a thick tin band that was attached at the bottom of the replacement handle and encircled the jug, covering up much of the front decoration. It may have rusted and fallen off, as I have seen on other pieces with similar repairs.

The top of the pewter lid is engraved with the original owner’s initials.

Wonderfully detailed sketch showing an almost identical jug with its original handle.

Drawing from the book “Early American Folk Pottery” by Harold F. Guilland, 1971.

Edith Wharton, inventive repair in literature

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

Edith Wharton in The Mount library 1905.

Excerpt from Edith Wharton’s “Copy”: A Dialogue, Scribner’s Magazine 27 (June 1900):

VENTNOR. But the time comes when one sends for the china-mender, and has the bits riveted together, and turns the cracked side to the wall —

MRS. DALE. And denies that the article was ever damaged?

VENTNOR. Eh? Well, the great thing, you see, is to keep one’s self out of reach of the housemaid’s brush. (A pause.) If you’re married you can’t — always. (Smiling.) Don’t you hate to be taken down and dusted?