Exceedingly Rare Four-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Elaborate Cobalt Floral Decoration, Stamped "S HOLMES Georgetown / D.C.," circa 1820, ovoid jar with footed base, tooled shoulder, squared rim, and arched tab handles, brush-decorated on the front with two large horizontal tulip motifs and on the reverse with three large horizontal tulip motifs, including one tulip extending under the proper right handle. Proper left handle decorated with four vertical dashes below. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Only the second signed example of Samuel Holmes stoneware to come to light, the first being a pitcher sold in Crocker Farm's August 4, 2023 auction, lot 38. This jar reveals that Holmes's maker's mark included an "S" abbreviating Samuel, a letter omitted in the stamp on the pitcher. Holmes' shop is referenced in two period sources: An advertisement placed by Holmes in April 1820 issues of the Georgetown National Messenger announced that he had found "a dark bay HORSE, about fourteen hands high and blind in one eye" at his "Stone-Ware Manufactory," located "at the upper end of High-street" (now Wisconsin Avenue). The 1820 Census of Manufactures (a special census schedule documenting manufacturing operations) also lists Holmes' shop, noting that 3 hands were at work there producing $2000 worth of pottery annually. Holmes was producing stoneware in a distinct Baltimore style, both in form and decoration, highly reminiscent of the work of Baltimore potter, Elisha Parr. This stands to reason, as Holmes had been bound as an apprentice to Baltimore earthenware potter William Moody in 1800, later appearing in an 1810 Baltimore city directory as a potter working among the local earthenware (and nascent stoneware) shops. As Holmes' involvement in the Baltimore stoneware craft dates to this extraordinarily early period, he may have served as one of the formative figures in transitioning locally-made ware into a more attractive, cobalt-decorated art form. Among the most significant discoveries in District of Columbia stoneware of the past decade. Provenance: Recently surfaced in Southern Virginia. Top of rim with a shallow 2 3/8" flake and two small chips, all possibly in-the-firing. A mostly-thin circular crack on underside, including two vertical cracks extending off from it, measuring 6" and 5 1/2" on reverse. A 1" line also extends onto the base on front. A small in-the-firing surface chip (contact mark) to front. Some bubbling to heavier-applied areas of cobalt. H 14 1/4".
