Three Gallon Stoneware Jar
Salt Glaze with Slip Glazed Cobalt Decoration Featuring the “Alexandria” Flower Motif
Probably B.C. Milburn – Benedict C. MIlburn (1805-1867)
Wilkes Street Pottery
Marked ” H.C. SMITH / ALEXa / DC”
Circa 1840
H 12″
Hugh Charles Smith (1804-1854) was the son of Alexandria merchant Hugh Smith and was active in the management of the Wilkes Street pottery which the elder Smith had purchased from potter John Swann in 1821. The Smiths employed B.C. Milburn (probably a Swann apprentice) to run the pottery and eventually sold the operation to him in 1841. H.C. Smith continued to purchase pottery from Milburn for his mercantile concerns which he marketed with his stamp as his father had done previously. This crock can be dated to the period prior to 1847 when Alexandria would retrocede from the District of Columbia and return to Virginia.
$2950
