Pitcher, "Caleb Strong"

Description:

This creamware pitcher is transfer-printed with the phrase “The GRATITUDE of / MASSACHUSETTS, / Follows CALEB STRONG to / NORTHAMPTON.” The reverse is printed with the phrase “Success to Our /NEW GOVERNOR! / GENERAL BROOKS.” Small in size as well as simply decorated, this pitcher provides a physical connection to the political scene of Massachusetts during the first two decades of the 19th century.

This pitcher is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark on the pitcher to tell us who made it, but it is characteristic of wares made in large volume for the American market in both Staffordshire and Liverpool between 1790 and 1820. Pitchers of this shape, with a cream colored glaze over a pale earthenware clay, known as Liverpool type, were the most common vessels to feature transfer prints with subjects commemorating events and significant figures in the early decades of United States’ history. Notwithstanding the tense relationship between Britain and America, Liverpool and Staffordshire printers and potters seized the commercial opportunity offered them in the production of transfer printed earthenwares celebrating the heroes, the military victories, and the virtues of the young republic, and frequently all of these things at once.