Jar
Object number2007.57.31
Attributed to
James Hamilton and Company
Retailer
Samuel Cooper
Date1851-1880
Possible OriginGreensboro, PA
Mediumstoneware clay, salt glaze, albany and cobalt slip
Credit LineGift of Bernard Vavrek and Joanne Vavrek
Descriptionstoneware storage jar, approximately one-gallon capacity, light gray color with light cobalt-blue slip decoration; tall, cylindrical form, bulging outward toward the shoulder; embossed lines at neck, with overhanging rim; interior coated with brown Albany-slip; base has seven unglazed scars from kiln stacking furniture; face of jar decorated with two diagonal sets of freehand wavy lines, centered by a stencil with retailer information.Dimensions9.75 x 6.25 x 6.25 in. (24.8 x 15.9 x 15.9 cm)MarksCobalt stencil which reads: "From Samuel Cooper / No. 7 / Diamond / Pittsburgh."
Historical NotesThis jar was made for a Pittsburgh merchant, Samuel Cooper, located on Diamond Street (now Forbes Avenue); it was quite likely made by the James Hamilton & Company (1851-1880) pottery in Greensboro, Pennsylvania, who is known to have supplied Cooper with stoneware. After James Hamilton's death in 1880, the firm was transferred to Thomas F. Reppert and William Williams. James Hamilton served as a lieutenant in a cavalry company in the Union Army during the Civil War. Part of a collection of stoneware from local manufacturers in the Western Pennsylvania region.
Related person
James Hamilton
Collector
Bernard Vavrek
On View
On view
c. 1875
1850-1890
c. 1868
