Extremely Rare Stoneware Water Filter with Elaborate Cobalt Clover Decoration, Stamped "Brotherton & Davidson. / PATENT. / BALTIMORE", Baltimore, MD, circa 1838, cylindrical form with squared rim, applied tab handles, and tubular base perforated with original filter holes. Body profusely-decorated on each side with a garland of graduated leaves and clovers. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals and tops of handle, and each handle underscored by a series of vertical cobalt slashes. Impressed with the large cobalt-highlighted maker's mark, "Brotherton & Davidson / PATENT / B ALTIMORE". This partnership's patented water filter is previously known only from advertisements in local Baltimore newspapers circa 1838. It is the first example of stoneware signed by Captain Thomas Brotherton and George Henry Davidson to have surfaced. Davidson would later travel to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, establishing the partnerships, "Miller and Davidson" and "Kenner, Davidson, and Miller", in Strasburg. Short, thin cracks to rim area, some of which are touched up with paint on reverse. Chipping to base of filter. H 15".