Maker
Alexander "Ellick" Brown(American, active late 19th century)American, active late 19th century
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Pitcher
Dateafter 1865
Made inHenderson, Texas, United States
MediumAlkaline-glazed stoneware
Dimensions8 3/8 × 6 × 5 1/2 in. (21.3 × 15.2 × 14 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of William J. Hill
Object numberB.2012.45
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Ceramics Study Room
On view
Explore Further
Department
Bayou BendObject Type
Alexander “Ellick” (or Elix) Brown is known primarily through oral histories of the Hunt family, who owned and operated a pottery Rusk County, Texas, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Descendants of John Fleming Hunt name Ellick Brown, formerly enslaved at the Taylor Brown pottery, as the artisan who taught their ancestor to make stoneware around the 1880s.
Pottery fragments inscribed with a distinctive “EB” configuration have been found at the Hunt site,
and this pitcher is a rare example of the finely shaped and evenly glazed wares that bear this mark.
Provenance[Jon St. Clair, Austin]; purchased by William J. Hill (1934–2018), Houston, 2006; given to MFAH, 2012.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Impressed at shoulder: "EB"
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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