Images(7)

Water Cooler

Date1840-1842

Artist/Maker Henry Lowndes ((active 1811-1842))

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Petersburg

MediumSalt-glazed stoneware

DimensionsOverall: 17 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 12 1/2in. (44.5 x 31.8 x 31.8cm)

Credit LineGift of Colwill-McGehee Antique Decorative and Fine Arts in Honor of Carolyn J. Weekley

Object number1993.900.1

DescriptionBaluster-shaped vessel with molded lip and two lug handles mounted on raised base having a molded top and a band of impressed coggled interlocking block decoration above the foot. Additional decoration consists of a molded and applied spread eagle looking left and perched on an oval medallion and surrounded by a partial oval composed of thirteen applied stars, all painted with cobalt oxide. Below, an applied clay square with cut corners in the center of which is cut a circular hole. Cobalt decoration surrounds the hole. Emanating from each side of this structure and extending approx. 2/3 of the way around to the back of the vessel is a flowering leafy branch. For ornamentation on the back of the vessel see "Inscription(s)."
Label TextThis cooler, which descended in the Bolling family of Petersburg, Virginia, is decorated with a molded patriotic eagle and thirteen stars. It confirms Henry Lowndes as a potter who produced some of the most ambitious and lavishly ornamented stoneware vessels in Virginia before 1850. The molded and applied decorative technique on this cooler evokes Lowndes's heritage, his father having emigrated from Staffordshire, England. Lowndes signed his name and place of manufacture on a number of pieces, including this example.

InscribedInscribed in cobalt oxide script on reverse "H Lowndes / Manufactor / Petersburg Va."
ProvenancePurchased from a member of the Bolling family, Petersburg, VA, by Marshall Goodman, Richmond, VA, who sold it to C-M.
-information from curator work sheet from 2/95

Exhibition(s)