Extremely Rare Stoneware Harvest Jug w/ Anatomical Spout and Springfield, Ohio Inscription

Spring 2024 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 210

Price Realized: $1,680.00

($1,400 hammer, plus 20% buyer's premium)

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Spring 2024 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Stoneware Presentation Harvest Jug with Anatomical Spout, Inscribed "George Swinehart / Springfield, Ohio," Summit County, OH origin, circa 1890, beehive form with button-shaped finial and heavily-incised handle in the form of a sawed tree limb, the front and reverse with narrow spout for pouring and wide spout for filling, the former modeled in the form of male genitalia with incised hair. Surface covered in a mottled brown Albany slip glaze with unusual omission of the glaze along the midsection of the handle, this area instead coated in a salt glaze over a grayish-white ground. Incised into the Albany slip below the smaller spout with the inscription, "George Swinehart / Springfield, Ohio," probably referring to the George Swinehart (1829-1919) who grew up in Springfield and appears as a 21-year-old local blacksmith in the 1850 census. Soon later he would marry a woman from nearby Suffield, Portage County (a few miles away), and settle there. While the 1860 census continues to list him as a blacksmith, he had taken up farming by the time the 1870 census was compiled. This humorous jug is the first of its kind that we have seen, although it follows the bawdy style of other Midwestern stoneware makers, including Ohio potters who applied female breasts for their jugs' pouring spouts and the Kirkpatricks of Anna, Illinois, who produced a number of similarly-provocative works. A closely-related harvest jug in this auction, bearing the presentation name Milton Slick and a Suffield inscription, is additionally incised "Made by N.M.H." at the base, identifying this potter as the same maker. It is likely that "N.M.H." was Noble Hope (born circa 1853), who appears as a 16-year-old potter working in Springfield in the 1870 census. Provenance: Robert and Nancy Treichler Collection, Tallmadge, OH. Excellent condition with a hairline through center of handle and a minor chip to end of handle. H 12".