Outstanding and Important Four-Gallon Stoneware Jug with Profuse Cobalt Flowering Urn Decoration, Stamped "COWDEN & WILCOX / HARRISBURG, PA," circa 1865, ovoid jug with semi-squared spout and applied strap handle, lavishly-decorated with a slip-trailed design of an open-handled urn with pedestal base, brimming with spitting tulips, a large central daisy blossom, oval fruit, and foliate sprays. Base of urn flanked by large leaves and curled trails. Wonderful detail throughout, including spots to central daisy, shaded edges to fruit, and heavily-slip-trailed strokes throughout the urn, which impart a three-dimensional quality to the design. Brushed cobalt highlights to maker's mark, capacity mark, and handle terminals. This jug's exceptional cobalt decoration ranks among the most exuberant of all known Cowden & Wilcox designs. The exquisite flowering urn motif, reminiscent of the artistic designs of Rochester and Lyons, New York, suggest the decoration was executed or inspired by Shem Thomas, a New-York-trained potter who was active at Harrisburg's Filbert Street Pottery for many years. The employment of a slip cup to decorate this jug is unusual, a treatment found on early Harrisburg stoneware products by T.H. Wilson and John Young, as well as some of Cowden & Wilcox's best work. The decoration's grand size, measuring 10" vertically and 11" horizontally, is matched with striking color and the steady hand of a true artist. Few Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, stoneware pieces of this quality are known. Excellent condition with some base chips, one of which occurred in-the-firing and is glazed-over, a minor nick to exterior of spout, and some wear to interior of spout. H 18".
