Storage Jar

Dateca. 1775

Attributed to Kemple Pottery

Attributed to James Morgan Sr. Pottery

OriginAmerica, New Jersey, Cheesequake or Ringoes

MediumStoneware, salt-glazed with blue

DimensionsOverall: 12in., 12.5cm (30.5cm, 4 15/16in.)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2009-50

DescriptionTwo-gallon, vertical-handled, ovoid stoneware jar with tooled bands filled with cobalt at the base and rim. Decorated on the front and back with an exuberant, brushed cobalt "watch spring" motif. Additional "watch spring" decorations extend from the base of each handle. A "2" below the rim indicated the two-gallon capacity.
Label TextThis storage jar could have been made by either the Kemple Pottery in Ringoes, New Jersey or at the pottery of James Morgan, Sr. in Cheesequake, New Jersey.

John Peter Kemple established a stoneware manufactory in Ringoes, New Jersey, around 1746. He had emigrated from Rhineland. The three generations of Kemples who produced German-inspired stoneware in New Jersey until about 1798 were farmers first, then potters. The family did not advertise their wares or attempt to market or export them, but, given the location of their pottery, they probably sold a goodly amount of stoneware. The main route from Trenton to Flemington and the major road from New York to Philadelphia intersected at Ringoes, so numerous taverns were established there and the town became a regional center. The local market for stoneware may have been large enough that the Kemples did not need to advertise. When Hanteel Kemple, grandson of John Peter, died in 1798, his inventory listed potters' tools, earthenware, and stoneware, indicating he may have worked as a potter until the time of his death.

Exploration of the Kemple kiln site in the 1950s and subsequent limited archaeological testing in the 1970s yielded shards with strong Germanic characteristics. Jugs, flasks, storage jars, bowls, mugs, and other utilitarian vessels with brushed cobalt and incised decoration were found. A four-gallon storage jar with robust lateral handles and brushed ornamentation has been attributed to the Kemple pottery based on its similarity to fragments found at the kiln site. Unusually, this jar is also embellished with manganese purple as well as the more typical cobalt blue.

James Morgan, Sr., inherited the Cheesequake property where he set up his pottery in 1764. In 1770, Captain James Morgan, as he was often called, established the Morgan pottery. There is no record that any member of the family was involved in the production of pottery before this date. Over several years, Morgan transferred the property to his son, James Morgan, Jr., and, by the time Captain Morgan died in 1784, James, Jr., owned the pottery.

Stoneware produced at the Morgan pottery displays a distinctly German influence. Captain Morgan probably hired potters from New York who had trained at the Crolius or Remmey potteries. Vessels produced at the Morgan pottery are gray-bodied and often have trailed cobalt decoration. Known predominately for the watch spring spiral designs, the pottery also produced elaborate incised decoration filled with blue. The spirals added value to pieces and were fairly easy to produce, while the incised motifs were executed by a potter with an artistic hand.

The so-called "watch spring" motif, a spiral design trailed freehand onto stoneware, previously has been most closely associated with the Morgan pottery in Cheesequake, New Jersey. However, the decoration appears on shards unearthed at the Kemple site and also was used by potteries throughout New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. The proliferation of the watch spring design makes attribution based on this factor alone complicated at best. This storage jar could have been made by the Kemple family; it is equally possible that it was potted at the Morgan manufactory.

ProvenancePurchased from Rob Hunter of Yorktown, Virginia. He acquired from a Crocker Farm auction in York, Pennsylvania on March 21, 2009.