Outstanding Stoneware Pitcher with Profuse Cobalt Stripe Decoration, Craven Family, Randolph or Moore Counties, NC, second half 19th century, ovoid pitcher with flared collar, rounded rim, and applied handle with extended, pointed terminal, the surface lavishly-decorated with brushed cobalt banding overlain with vertically slip-trailed lines. Additional brushed daubs of cobalt appear between the horizontal banding. Handle decorated with brushed striping along the top surface, daubs on the underside, and cobalt highlights along the edges and terminals. Among the most heavily-decorated examples of American stoneware known, this work is made all-the-more significant by its manufacture in the North Carolina tradition, in which cobalt was sparingly used. The basis for its Craven/North Carolina attribution include a number of characteristics, including its color, salt application, glazed underside, cobalt banding (documented on pieces by Jacob Dorris Craven, Thomas Wesley Craven, and John Anderson Craven), and elongated, pointed handle terminal (also documented in the Cravens' work). A few, exceptionally rare slip-trailed pieces of Craven family stoneware, including a William Nichols Craven jug with the cobalt-script inscription, "Sate(sic) / of nc / randolph county," in the MESDA collection, indicate slip cup decoration, as seen on this pitcher, was also part of the Cravens' decorative vocabulary. Two adjacent, broken and reglued sections on right side of collar. Long curving crack from spout. A few rim chips. H 7 1/2".
