Daniel Greatbach
Pitcher

ModelerAmerican, born England, active 1838–c. 1861
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Pitcher
Datec. 1840–1850
Made inJersey City, New Jersey, United States
MediumLead-glazed earthenware
Dimensions9 × 7 × 8 5/8 in. (22.9 × 17.8 × 21.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.63.16
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Ceramics Study Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This pitcher is the product of the American Pottery Company, a firm formed in 1833 by David Henderson, who had earlier established the D. & I. Henderson Company as the successor to the failing Jersey Porcelain and Earthenware Company. The factory introduced to America sophisticated English-style pottery modeled by such designers as Daniel Greatbach, who joined the firm in 1839. The pottery was also the first to produce large quantities of refined earthenware using patterned molds.  Here the finely detailed molded ornament combines exotic Gothic or Moorish arches with naturalistic roses suggestive of the eclectic romantic taste at mid-century. The paneled hexagonal form was also popular at this time.

Related examples: Watkins 1946, p. 392, fig. 16, with a Rockingham glaze; New Jersey Pottery 1972, no. 34, with a yellow glaze.

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.


ProvenanceLouis M. King, Utica, New York; [George Abraham and Gilbert May Antiques, Granville, Massachusetts]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1963; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
Impressed on underside: AMERICAN / POTTERY Co / JERSEY CITY NJ [Thorn 1947, p. 115. no. 16, and Barber 1976a, pp.41, 44]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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