Scarce and Fine One-Gallon Stoneware Jug with Elaborate Incised Floral Decoration, Manhattan, NY origin, circa 1790-1800, finely-potted, ovoid jug with footed base, heavily-tooled spout, and rounded mouth, the front featuring an incised floral design with scalloped blossom. Design features striking cobalt-decorated and undecorated elements, including a "hollow" band in the center of the blossom and a figure 8 motif at the blossom's base. Brushed cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Incised decorations of this decorative quality are rarely found on Manhattan jugs of this small size. The hand that executed the incising is strikingly similar to that seen on signed Thomas Commeraw examples, and was possibly rendered by him. Interestingly, in a great case of migration of design, a variant of this incised motif can be found on an important Tennessee stoneware water cooler, displayed at the 2001 exhibit "Tennessee Turned: Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee, 1800-1900", held at the Museum of East Tennessee. Some staining to clay. Two small in-the-firing flakes to shoulder on jug's front. A hairline to handle. H 11 1/2".
