Quintal
Dateca. 1870
Attributed to
David Greenland Thompson
1819-1890
MediumSalt-glazed stoneware
DimensionsOH: 4 1/8"; OD: 5 1/2" (body at widest point).
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2021.900.25
DescriptionQuintal: five-spouted bulbous flower vessel with applied leafy vines and an applied yellow rose and rose bud.Label TextThe attribution of this five-spouted flower vessel to David Greenland Thompson is based on the applied decoration and the style of the piece as it relates to an inscribed pitcher with a history of descent in the potter’s family and illustrated in Figure 60 in “The Stoneware Years of the Thompson Potters of Morgantown, West Virginia, 1854–1890” (Ceramics in America, 2011). The delicate floral decoration on this quintal is indicative of an artistic move on the part of the potter, perhaps, foretelling or at least bridging styles prevalent in the Arts and Crafts movement.Many of Thompson’s pottery tools survive in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History enabling the firm attribution of unsigned or unmarked vessels. This quintal along with Colonial Williamsburg’s Thompson family storage jars (1999.900.1 and 2015.900.9) illustrates the breadth of that pottery’s stoneware production.
ca. 1770
ca. 1740
