Utilitarian salt-glazed storage vessels were routinely decorated with floral or bird ornaments in cobalt blue glaze, but the rendering was usually somewhat rough.  However, the decorator of this piece has produced, with rapid and economical strokes, a sophisticated depiction of a plump bird perched on a stump, which lends distinction to an otherwise average jar.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.