Earthenware pitcher with applied handle molded in a dramatic S-curve shape. Hand-painted with grapes and leaves in blue, green and black underglaze.
History
The Pauline Pottery was a commercial art pottery works established by Pauline Jacobus in Chicago in 1883. In 1888, Jacobus and her husband Oscar relocated the company to Edgerton, Wisconsin in order to gain access to the high-quality cream-colored earthenware clay beds found in the area. The heavy clay used in this pitcher is quite different from the distinctively light Edgerton clay, suggesting it was most likely made in Chicago of imported clay. In Edgerton, Oscar managed the production of porous earthenware cups for electric batteries (the pottery's primary income generator) while Pauline worked with a staff of women decorators to create ornamental wares decorated with hand-painted underglaze. Faced with financial difficulties after the death of Oscar Jacobus, the pottery was forced to close in 1894. In 1902, Pauline Jacobus reopened the Pauline Pottery on a smaller scale, operating the company from her own home until her retirement in 1909.
Sources
Maurice Montgomery, Edgerton's History in Clay: Pauline Pottery to Pickard China (2001); Emily Pfotenhauer, "Art Pottery in Edgerton: History and Resources" Wisconsin Object (accessed March 5, 2008): http://wisconsinobject.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/art-pottery-in-edgerton-history-and-resources An identical form in a private collection is illustrated in Ori-Anne Pagel, Pauline Pottery: A Pictorial Supplement to 'Edgerton's History in Clay' (Arts Council of Edgerton, 2003), p. 34.
