Exceedingly Rare and Important Two-Gallon Stoneware Jug with Incised Eagle and Bird Motifs, Stamped "WHEELING POTTERY," VA (now WV) origin, circa 1817, ovoid jug with tooled spout, decorated with a large incised design of a spread-winged Federal eagle with shield across its chest, carrying an olive branch and arrows in its talons. Appealing stylized features to the image include an oversized beak to the bird, profuse incised feathering and crosshatching to the stripes on the shield. The jug is further decorated on the opposing side with an incised design of a hummingbird feeding on a flowering stem. Salt-glazed surface. Not widely understood by scholars and collectors, the early Wheeling stoneware objects bearing this mark and related "J. MILLER / WHEELING, Va." are the products of a former Baltimore potter named John Miller. According to one of the newspaper items illustrated on the following page, Miller founded his Wheeling stoneware shop in 1806, one that became so extensive that there was "not a county in the entire States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, in the Territory of Arkansas, in West Tennessee, or North Alabama, in which the name of the manufacturer may not be seen imprinted on his manufacture." At least as of 1817, the name impressed on Miller's products was that seen on this jug, "WHEELING POTTERY," a partnership consisting of Miller, future Ohio potter Jacob Marsilliot, and an unidentified "Green." One of a small group of impressed "WHEELING POTTERY" pieces known, this work is among the earliest examples of marked West Virginia stoneware known and may depict the earliest rendering of an eagle on a ceramic object made in this state. Provenance: Purchased by Wahler in 2014 from the Jack Whitfield Estate of Franklin, TN. Excellent condition with some in-the-firing warping to underside and a hairline to handle. Applied felt to the underside helps to jug sit flat. H 15".
