Exceptional Two-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Oversized Cobalt Bird on Branch Decoration, Stamped "J. & E. NORTON, / BENNINGTON, VT," circa 1855, cylindrical jar with tooled shoulder, tapered rim, and applied lug handles, decorated with an unusually large slip-trailed design of a plump-bodied bird with plumed crest, perched in the crook of a tree branch. The design is executed in bold, enamel-like cobalt and includes heavy cobalt highlighting to the bird's back, wing detail, and alternating striped and hollow tail feathers. The branch features rare foreshortened, three-dimensional execution, with the sawed end of the limb terminating towards the viewer. Cobalt highlights to maker's mark and capacity. This jar features perhaps the largest bird design in comparison to the size of the vessel that we have ever offered in Norton stoneware. The shape of the bird and its distinctive crest suggest that John Hilfinger, the itinerant artist who created the image, was depicting a quail. Front of rim with two adjacent reglued sections, measuring a total of 3 1/2" x 1". This reglued section does not extend through to the vessel's interior and includes a small filled area above it. A second 1 3/8" x 1/2" reglued chip appears on the proper far left side of the jar's front and does not extend through to the interior. A faint 2" Y-shaped line to proper right side of jar's front, not touching decoration. A minor in-the-firing flake to base on front. Inner rim for lid with a small chip and wear. H 11 1/8".
