- Pitcher
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This pitcher form, no. 8 in Tucker’s monochrome pattern book and identified there as Grecian shape, represents an alternative to the ubiquitous Vase shape (see B.71.53, B.80.1, B.22.7.1, 2, B.22.6.1, .2, B.22.5.1, .2, B.22.4, B.22.8). The Grecian shape was also produced by the short-lived, rival firm of Smith Fife and Company. The present example is richly ornamented with typical polychrome floral bouquets and gilt bandings and is personalized with the monogram cypher “C.”
Related examples: A very similar painted pair with gilt cypher “TBC” and another with simpler gilding (Tucker 1957, nos. 327, 328, and 384).
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.
Provenance[Christie’s East, New York, sale 6805, April 26, 1989]; purchased through the Stradlings, New York, as agent for MFAH, 1989.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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