Images(11)

Sugar Pot

Dateca. 1790

Possibly by Jacob Albright Jr.

Possibly by Henry Loy

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Alamance County

MediumLead-glazed earthenware

DimensionsOverall (from outer edge of handle to outer edge of handle): 6 7/8 x 6 5/8 x 6 1/4in. (6 7/8 x 6 5/8in., 15.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2008-1

DescriptionOpen mouthed slipware jar with two lug handles, one on either side of the body, attached near the rim of the vessel. This piece would originally have had a domed lid with a simple knop finial. The body is decorated all over with a dark brown slip and then further ornamented with lines and rows of dots in white slip dividing the surface vertically into four sections. Within each section a flower has been painted in orange, white and green slip. Each handle is decorated with a small flower painted in slip on the outer edge.
Label TextUntil recently very little was known about pottery made in the North Carolina back country and what was known was centered on the Moravian communities at Bethabara and Salem. Excavations at a number pottery sites in Alamance and Randolph Counties shed light on the wealth of potters working in 18th- and 19th-century North Carolina. sugar pot was produced by potters of Germanic descent working in and around the St. Asaph’s district of Orange County (now southern Alamance County), North Carolina. The potters working in this region were interrelated and interdependent; therefore the styles of decoration they brought with them from Germany, to Pennsylvania, and eventually to North Carolina were not greatly influenced by outside forces. Design elements changed little over a long period of time and it is only archaeological excavations at some of their pottery sites that allow us to more specifically attribute some of these pieces to particular potteries.
ProvenanceLuke Beckerdite, Williamsburg, Virginia

Exhibition(s)