"Butter Pot"

Dateca. 1876

Artist/Maker Ottman Brothers (1872-1892)

MediumGray salt-glazed stoneware

Dimensions12 1/8" x 13 1/2" x 12 3/8" (30.7 cm. x 34.3 cm. x 31.1 cm.)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1976.900.1

DescriptionButter pot of cylindrical shape with straight sides, heavy rolled exterior rim, and bilateral lug-type handles. Albany slip to the interior. Decorated on the exterior in cobalt with a bird holding a banner reading "Centennial". Impressed "OTTMAN BRO'S & CO./FORT EDWARD, N.Y./5" below the rim. Albany slip interior.Label TextIn the case of nineteenth-century decorated stoneware, the surfaces of what otherwise would have been purely utilitarian storage containers often became the backdrop for expressions of popular sentiment. At a time when mass production prevailed and when, as a result, the individuality of folk or popular art began to wane, the Centennial celebration gave rise not only to a resurgence in amateur arts and crafts production but also broadened and more permanently cemented a growing vocabulary of patriotic motifs that can be found on all sorts of folk decorative arts including pottery, textiles, painted tinware, and trade signs. The Ottman brothers, Gilbert and William, operated their large stoneware factory in Fort Edward, New York, from shortly before the Centennial year until early in the 1890's.Inscription(s)"Centennial"Mark(s)Impressed "OTTMAN BRO'S & CO./FORT EDWARD, N.Y./5" below the rim.ProvenanceVendor: Maze Pottinger Antiques, Birmingham, Mich.