Important and Unique One-Gallon Stoneware Milk Pan with Elaborate Cobalt Floral Decoration, Stamped "TILDON EASTON," Alexandria, VA origin, circa 1841-1843, shallow, flaring form with tooled shoulder, arched tab handles, and wide pouring spout, brush-decorated on the front with an open-centered tulip or bellflower descending from the spout, flanked by fern-like foliate motifs. A second tulip emanates from the edge of this design. Reverse decorated with an open-centered tulip or bellflower descending from a series of swags. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Impressed below spout with the maker's mark, "TILDON EASTON," below a one-gallon capacity mark. This milk pan is the only intact piece of marked Tildon Easton pottery known, today regarded as one the most famous and important ceramic objects from Alexandria's illustrious stoneware industry. Made in a brief window between 1841 and 1843, this extremely rare survivor features a stamp and brushwork consistent with numerous sherds excavated in 1984 at Easton's shop near the corner of King and Peyton Streets. These sherds are now in possession of the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Easton has held something of a legendary status with collectors since Alexandria Archaeology published Barbara Magid's Tildon Easton: The Rediscovery of an Alexandria Potter in 1986, many years before this intact milkpan surfaced, and its discovery was considered one of the most significant in the history of D.C. area stoneware collecting. That significance is further evidenced by its illustration on the cover of Eddie L. Wilder's book, Alexandria, Virginia Pottery 1792-1876. Ironically, it was Easton's 1843 bankruptcy--and the resulting rarity of his work--that gave him modern notoriety; that same bankruptcy led to his decision to leave Alexandria for Baltimore, where he would attend the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, eventually becoming a dental surgeon. One of the most significant northern Virginia stoneware objects ever to be sold at auction. Literature: Illustrated in Wilder, Alexandria, Virginia Pottery 1792-1876, cover, p. 74. For more information on Easton, see Magid (1986); Wilder; and Barbara H. Magid, "An Archaeological Perspective on Alexandria's Pottery Tradition" in Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winter 1995. A few rim chips. A shallow spout chip and minor spout nick. A 2 1/2" hairline from rim on reverse. Heavy chipping and wear to proper right handle. Two chips to proper left handle. Diam. 11" ; H 4 1/4".
