William Bromley Pitcher, ca. 1845
Watch
GUEST:
It belonged to a dear friend of the family. She was from Kentucky, and it came to me through my aunt and my father. And I've had it approximately seven or eight years. I liked the fact that it had a dog for a handle, and it has, well, it seems to be a hunting scene on it, interesting eagle on the bottom.
APPRAISER:
Did you know it was American?
GUEST:
No, I didn't.
APPRAISER:
Well, you liked the hound handle.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Well, the hound handle-- and, as a matter of fact, the shape in general-- devolves from an English form which was done by a company named Phillips and Baxter in England in the 1820s. And then it was... came over here, and the D&J Henderson Company of Jersey City featured it in this form a hound-handled pitcher, in the American Institute Exhibition of 1828 or '29-- in that time period. The same kind of a hound handle was copied, they said, from classical designs and was found at Herculaneum, of all places. The design around the sides here is a fox hunt. Very hard to see because of the glaze. Now, the glaze is what we call a Rockingham glaze. Well, a Rockingham glaze is basically a clear glaze which has been stained or colored with manganese to make it look brown. And it was introduced into this country about 1844, '45. So we can date this pitcher in that particular period. Now, the shape itself began, as I said, in Jersey City. It was carried by a modeler by the name of Daniel Greatbatch to Bennington, Vermont, where they did the same form of pitcher. And then it went to where this pitcher was made. It was made in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is Cincinnati in the 1840s. Now, the mark on it is an eagle. Now, the eagle has been filled in with brown glaze, so you can't really read what's underneath that eagle. But it says "Bromley, Cincinnati".
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
And the value of this is between, I would say, $2,000 to $3,000, probably around $2,800 realistically, something like that. What do you think of that?
GUEST:
Fabulous.
APPRAISER:
Did I tell you too much about it?
GUEST:
No!
Appraisal Details
Current Appraised Value: $1,500 - $2,000 (Decreased)
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