While I flipped through the pages of this catalog a few years ago, I noticed two aspects of Pennsylvania pottery production that must have interested Governor Pennypacker - the first being sgraffito, followed by the state's prolific production of whimsical figures.
These categories were also of great interest to Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), when he began acquiring pottery, as part of his Americana and architectural collection at Winterthur Museum in Delaware, beginning in the 1920s.
I recently toured Winterthur's red earthenware and stoneware collection, which combines many aspects of eighteenth and nineteenth century production from across America. But the whimsical figures are certainly a focal point of the collection. I was genuinely delighted to see the variety of figures, a type of production that in many ways is unsurpassed elsewhere in this country, with maybe an exception of the figures made in Virginia.
Clearly many of the potters employed in Pennsylvania in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were skilled artisans; although, these craftsmen also showed an artistic capability, breaking away from their day-to-day household utilitarian production, and manufacturing some of the most playful and mischievous figures.
In one way or another, Winterthur's collection may also be the best assortment of figurals owned anywhere today, whether it be a private collection or museum. Furthermore, these objects are not signed, so in many cases, it is difficult to gather facts to create an accurate attribution.
However, as I wrote yesterday, the Pennypacker auction catalog was published with a number of attributions that still hold true today. There was also an attribution given for some of the figures in the catalog to a potter I had never heard of before, who was employed in Pennsylvania in the 1800s. I am not going to name this potter today since I have not conducted any research around his work, but some of the pieces that were attributed to him in the Pennypacker Collection are also represented in Winterthur of basically identical manufacture. This potter's name may or may not shed new light into the manufacture of some of these figures in the 1800s.
Collection of Whimsical Figures Owned by Winterthur in Delaware
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Monkeys from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Figures from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Figures from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Figures from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Dogs from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Birds from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Birds from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Red Earthenware Dog
Attributed to the Wagner Pottery - Carbon County, PA
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Dog Probably from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Dog from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Dog Probably from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
19th Century Whimsical Red Earthenware Dog Probably from Pennsylvania
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Photo Courtesy: Winterthur
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