Exceedingly Rare Stoneware String Holder with Profuse Cobalt Vine Decoration, Greensboro, PA origin, possibly William "Leet" Hamilton, circa 1860, wheel-thrown, dome-shaped form with incised banding and narrow opening, decorated completely around the shoulder and body with an extravagant freehand looping vine design. Cobalt banding to shoulder and midsection. Top with freehand crosshatched decoration. A closely-related looping vine motif can be found on a marked William "Leet" Hamilton jar, sold in Crocker Farm's November 3, 2007 auction, lot 253, indicating this well-documented potter as a possible maker. Among the rarest and most coveted Western Pennsylvania stoneware forms, this delicately-potted example features outstanding decoration and survives in extraordinary condition. A related example of this form made by Greensboro potter, Alexander Vancer Boughner, and gifted by him to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is illustrated in Garvan, The Pennsylvania German Collection, p. 231, fig. 3. Excellent condition with small base chips, some of which occurred in the firing, a minor in-the-firing surface fissure near base, and a small in-the-firing ping below spout. H 6" ; Diam. 6 3/8".
