Ring, or Harvest, Jug

Summit, Alabama

1875-1880

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Large "Gunboat Quilt" of brown silk taffeta, at its center an embroidered basket overflowing with appliqued flowers and two tiny strawberries and a small butterfly, surrounded by an embroidered wreath of similar flowers, like flowers adorn each of the four corners, the quilt front is divided by a geometric pattern of two vertical and two horizontal bands of small dark-blue taffeta squares, the back a medium brown polished cotton, the edges bound with blue taffeta.
Large vase with green rim at top and orange bottom, clear in middle
Woman ("Salamina") in traditional Inuit costume, sitting on ground, peering out over the arctic waters, shielding eyes from sun with right hand.
"This all-white pitcher is enlived on both sides with relief-molded references to Bacchus. The wine god is portrayed in the guise of a nude child seated amid grape vines and displaying his attributes of a staff and a goblet of wine. These motifs suggest that the pitcher was intended for the dispensing of alcoholic beverages. The assymetrical compostiion of the design and the profusion of ornament – a scrolled medallion embellishing the front and leafage in relief decorating the foot and handle – derive directly from the vocabulary of the Rococo-revival style then at the height of its reign in America." From Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. American Porcelain, 1770 - 1920. Exh. cat. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989: no. 26, 119.