Extremely Rare Anna Pottery Stoneware Pig Flask with Pittston, PA Presentation, Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna, IL, circa 1870;s, molded flask in the form of a reclining pig with incised face and hooves, hole in rear, and anatomically-correct underside, the surface covered in a dark-brown Albany slip glaze. Incised on one side with the presentation inscription, "From / Geo Burns. CAIRO Ills / To / Lute, Welch. Pittston, Pa. / With a little good old Bourbon in". Remainder of pig incised with a railroad map of the Midwest, including the following landmarks: St. Louis the future Capital in, Miss River, Grand Tower, Sandoval, Odin, Centralia, Carbondale, Jonesboro, Mounds, Cairo in, Anna Pottery & Piggery, Ohio River, Cincinnati the ancient Porkopolis, and Chicago the Corn Crib of the World. This pig's inscription, stating both the presenter and recipient of the flask, is highly unusual. Both men appear in the 1870 federal census in their respective towns, Luther Welch as a 29-year-old railroad dispatcher in Pittston, PA; George Burns as an engineer in Cairo, Illinois. This dual-name inscription is made even rarer by the recipient's Pittston, Pennsylvania location, as this flask is the first example bearing the name of a Pennsylvania resident that we have seen. Also of note is the rare and charming notation on the pig's haunch, "Anna Pottery & Piggery". Among the most unusual Anna Pottery pig flasks we have offered in the past several years. Loss to one ear. An in-the-firing line to underside of chin, with some shallow chipping along it. L 7 1/4".
