This pitcher and the previous example (B.72.98) exemplify the almost limitless shapes, ornaments, and allusions to high style given to the basic, molded, mass-produced Rockingham-glazed product. B.72.98, with its molded acantcshus leaves and grape ornaments, reflects the shift away from classicism to naturalism at mid-century, echoed by the branch-form handle. The swirl ribbed design seen on the present example represents the Rococo revival, referencing eighteenth-century Continental silver forms.

Related examples: Barret 1958, p. 26, pl. 25g.

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.