Last week, I posted a story to this website, titled, Signed Plates Made by David Spinner in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where I cited the only signed examples known to me, which included a plate that sold at Christies in New York City on January 19, 2007. That plate is signed "D Spinner / 1801." There are also two signed examples owned by the Brooklyn Museum in New York City and a slip-decorated plate signed in slip-script that is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (read about it below). All of the other objects that I can find in museum collections and public sales are attributed to Spinner.
Interestingly, though, while reading through a book written by Edwin Atlee Barber (1851-1916) in 1907, titled, Lead Glazed Pottery: Part First (Common Clays) Plain Glazed Sgraffito And Slip Decorated Wares, Barber stated, “It would appear that he (Spinner) continued the manufacture (of red earthenware) until the close of his life, since his granddaughter Mrs. Elvina S. (Spinner) Dickenshied (1824-1915), possessed a piece of his ware dated 1811, the year of his death.”
Is this the object (also shown below) that Barber references in his book: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/39414? This unsigned object is now owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whereas it was gifted to the museum in 1906 by John T. Morris (1847-1915), one year before Barber published the book. The plate is also inscribed in slip-script, where the translation reads, "Everyone says that I have such a pretty wife. 1811."
Morris was the president of I.P. Morris and Company, an ironworks concern, a decorative art collector and a founder of the Morris Arboretum. Morris gifted his collection which he formed with his sister, Lydia T Morris (1849-1932), to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art), where he had served as a Trustee for twenty-three years and as Vice President of the museum’s corporation from 1897 to 1904.
Note: This dish is similar in technique to another slip-script red earthenware dish, also gifted in 1906 by John T. Morris to the Philadelphia Museum of Art that is signed in slip-script "D. Spinner:" https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/39413 -- the translation of the inscription reads, "Every morning I like to eat fried sausage in a sour broth. D. Spinner."
Thoughts? Is this the same plate that is cited by Barber?
A Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Dish Dated "1811"
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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