Images(3)

Dish

Date1820-1840

Attributed to Smith Pottery

OriginAmerica, Connecticut, Norwalk

MediumLead-glazed earthenware (redware)

DimensionsOH: 2 5/8"; OL: 15 3/4"; OW: 12".

Credit LineMuseum Purchase and C. Thomas Hamlin III Fund

Object number2022.900.5

DescriptionDish: red earthenware rectangular oblong dish with coggled rim; decorated with an inscription in white slip reading “Cheap / as Mud” within a frame of four wavy lines of white slip; the face of the dish is lead glazed.Label TextMost likely meant to be a shop sign, this slipware dish with its pithy slogan “Cheap / as Mud” heralded to prospective customers the affordability of locally-made ceramics. Norwalk, Connecticut, was a center for slip-script decorated wares, the dishes serving as a canvas for the sayings, slogans, and names they proclaimed. Colonial Williamsburg has one other example (1992.900.3) of Norwalk, Connecticut, script-decorated slipware. It is attributed to John Betts Gregory. Both Gregory and the Smiths of the Smith pottery were apprenticed by Absalom Day who is credited with the earliest slip-script pottery in Norwalk. Eventually Asa Smith (Absalom Day’s nephew) took over the Day pottery and it is during the Smith family tenure that this dish was made.

Richard Miller has written extensively about the Norwalk slip-script pottery tradition in his article “Norwalk (Connecticut) Slip-script Pottery, the Potters, and Related Ware” in the 2016 issue of the journal Ceramics in America.Inscription(s)Central inscription in white slip reads: “Cheap / as Mud”.ProvenanceFormerly in a California collection, sold by Crocker Farm, Lot 7, Spring 2022 Stoneware & Redware Auction (March 25, 2022).

With Sotheby's, NY (Date?)