For more than a decade now, I have wondered where a small sponge decorated red earthenware jug was made that is privately owned in the Northeast today, although it sold at Pook & Pook Auctions in Downington, Pennsylvania decades ago. The only comparable glaze decoration that I had seen until recently was an unrelated red earthenware coffee pot recovered from a circa 1740-1760 archaeological context in Philadelphia. In fact, I wrote about these objects a few months after I established this website back in 2013: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2013/06/early-to-mid-18th-century-redware-of.html.
However, while recently reviewing the red earthenware collection at the Historical Society of Washington County, Maryland, I was surprised to see a very similar decorated, but damaged red earthenware pitcher. Additionally, I suspect the only difference found in the glaze colors in these photos is merely a result of the type of lighting used: https://washcohistory.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/2C74F3F4-483F-4622-8A01-552940980390.
Interestingly, the base of the pitcher is signed in script "John Bell / 1859." I cannot recall having seen another object marked this way by John Bell (1800-1880) in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.
For more information about the John Bell Pottery - see a three-page cover story I wrote for December 7, 2018 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, The Bell Pottery Collection at the Renfrew Museum in Waynesboro, Pa.: https://antiquesandauctionnews.net/articles/The-Bell-Pottery-Collection-At-The-Renfrew-Museum-In-Waynesboro%2C-Pa~/.
A 19th Century Sponge Decorated Red Earthenware Jug and Pitcher
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