Very Rare Albany-Slip-Glazed Stoneware Pitcher with Incised Shield and Wreath Motifs, Signed "Willie Bray / Clinton, MO / 1879," ovoid pitcher with footed base, upswept spout, and spurred handle, the surface covered in Albany slip and incised with two shields flanking a wreath surrounding the name, "Willie Bray / Clinton / MO / 1879." Incised line decoration to handle and face at lower terminal. Bray was raised in Anna, Illinois, with his brothers, Simeon and J. Wallace, who all appear as children living there in the 1860 census. The itinerance of the three potter-brothers is evidenced in census and city directories of the period. Simeon, the oldest of the three, is listed in the 1870 census as a "Turner in pottery" working in Anna, where he presumably adopted the temperance jug form in his production at Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick's Anna Pottery. In 1880, Simeon appears as a potter in Evansville, Indiana, along with his brother, William, who made this pitcher while working in Clinton, Missouri one year earlier. William evidently traveled frequently, as he is also shown working in Mound City, Illinois, in 1880. Excellent condition with a small base chip and a few minor base nicks. H 6 1/2".
