Images(6)

Bottle

Dateca. 1798

Maker David Morgan

OriginAmerica, New York, New York City, Manhattan, Corlear's Hook

MediumStoneware, salt-glazed, gray with blue

DimensionsOverall: 14 3/8in. (36.5cm); Other: 9 1/4in. (23.5cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2008-49

DescriptionOvoid-form bottle with narrow reeded neck and pronounced rim. The strap handle is attached to the top of the neck, terminating at the top of the shoulder. The vessel is decorated with stamped designs including eight crescent-shaped motifs and eighteen hearts, all filled with cobalt. Beneath this ornament is the stamped mark DAVID MORGAN. / NEW YORK.
Label TextIn 1797 Thomas H. Commeraw established a stoneware pottery at Corlear's Hook in Manhattan. The following year, 1798, the pottery was taken over by David Morgan a potter who had previously been employed by John Crolius, Jr. in another area of the city. Morgan's work is remarkably similar in shape and decoration to those produced by Commeraw.

Commeraw returned to the Corlear's Hook pottery in 1802 and Morgan continued to work with him for a year. David Morgan is known to have been working in Manhattan in 1809, but after that he disappears from the records. It seems likely that David Morgan was related to James Morgan, Jr. of Cheesequake, New Jersey, but the link between the two has not been firmly established.
MarkingsStamped on the side of the bottle, opposite the handle, "DAVID MORGAN. / NEW YORK". The letters are filled with cobalt.
ProvenanceLuke Beckerdite, Williamsburg, Virginia

Exhibition(s)