Extremely Rare and Important One-Gallon with Elaborate Cobalt Floral Decoration, Stamped "S HOLMES, / Georgetown / D.C.," circa 1820, ovoid jar with footed base, tooled shoulder, semi-squared rim, and arched tab handles, brush-decorated on the front and reverse with a crossing tulip and graduated leaf motif extending from the handles. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Impressed at shoulder with the maker's mark of Baltimore-trained potter, Samuel Holmes, while active at his Georgetown, D.C. pottery, circa 1820. This jar is one of only three pieces that we are aware of bearing a Holmes maker's mark, all recently discovered works that have helped reestablish this potter's legacy. The first known signed example came to light just three years ago, a pitcher sold in our Summer 2023 auction, lot 38. The second, a closely related four-gallon jar, sold in our Summer 2024 auction, lot 379. Holmes's pottery is referenced in two period sources: An advertisement placed by Holmes in April 1820 issues of the Georgetown National Messenger announced that he had found "a dark bay HORSE, about fourteen hands high and blind in one eye" at his "Stone-Ware Manufactory," located "at the upper end of High-street" (now Wisconsin Avenue). The 1820 Census of Manufactures (a special census schedule documenting manufacturing operations) also lists Holmes' shop, noting that 3 hands were at work there producing $2000 worth of pottery annually. There, he produced stoneware in a distinct Baltimore style highly reminiscent of the work of Baltimore potter Elisha Parr. This stands to reason, as Holmes had been bound as an apprentice to Baltimore earthenware potter William Moody in 1800, later appearing in an 1810 Baltimore city directory as a potter working among the local earthenware (and nascent stoneware) shops. As Holmes' involvement in the Baltimore stoneware craft dates to this extraordinarily early period, he may have served as one of the formative figures in transitioning locally made ware into a more attractive, cobalt-decorated art form. To date, Holmes is the only documented Georgetown potter to sign his ware, as well as the earliest potter working in Washington's present-day District of Columbia, making this vessel a significant regional discovery. Excellent condition with a shallow 1/2" rim chip (possibly in-the-firing), a minor base chip, and some very minor in-the-firing flaws to surface. H 9 3/4".
