Extremely Rare Rockingham Hunt Scene Pitcher, Stamped "ABM MILLER", Abraham Miller, Philadelphia, PA origin, circa 1850, molded pitcher with hound-form handle and relief decoration of hanging game against a tree bark background. Surface covered in a reddish-brown glaze over a light clay ground. Underside impressed with the elusive maker's mark, "ABM MILLER", for the long-tenured Philadelphia, PA potter, Abraham Miller (active 1799?-1858), a producer of various types of earthenware, including redware, Rockinghamware, and portable furnaces. This pitcher is the first signed example of this important potter's work that we have ever offered. Signed sherds bearing this mark have been excavated in Philadelphia; however, we can find no evidence of an intact, signed example ever being documented. Literature: A period print of "ABM. MILLER'S POTTERY AND FIREBRICK MANUFACTORY" serves as the cover image for Susan Myers, Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, Smithsonian Institute Press, City of Washington, 1980; For more information on Abraham Miller, see Myers, pp. 31-37, 72-75. Wear to relief decoration. Wear to rim and handle. Old, smooth rim and spout chips. A few small base chips. A faint spider line on underside. A minor chip to underside. H 8 5/8".