Antique Rockingham Pottery Butter Crock

A particularly charming example of 19th-century American Rockingham ware, this Antique Rockingham Butter Crock combines wonderfully folky decoration with a spectacularly mottled glaze. Swirls of warm caramel, ochre and deep brown wash across its surface, while a peacock and floral relief designs appear in crisply molded relief around the body. Finished with its fitted lid, the crock has the wonderfully substantial, tactile quality that makes early American pottery so appealing.

Originally intended for the practical business of storing butter, today this handsome crock is ready for a new assignment. Put it back to work in the kitchen, enlist it to corral odds and ends on a desk, or simply let its richly glazed surface and curious menagerie add a little 19th-century character to a shelf.

Rockingham ware became popular on both sides of the Atlantic during the 19th century. First produced in England, these handsome utilitarian wares began appearing in North America by the 1830s, as Staffordshire potters brought their skills and traditions to a growing American pottery industry. By the 1840s, the distinctive brown-and-yellow mottled finishes now closely associated with Rockingham were being produced in earnest, with popularity increasing through the 1850s and 1860s.

Despite its name, Rockingham was not the product of a single pottery or even a single region. Numerous American manufacturers—from Baltimore and New Jersey to Ohio, Illinois and beyond—produced Rockingham-glazed wares, ranging from practical kitchen and table pieces to elaborately relief-molded vessels. The deep brown glaze often obscured makers' marks, leaving many surviving examples unsigned and their precise origins something of a mystery. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Bennington ware," Rockingham ware encompasses a much broader tradition of 19th-century pottery.

Strictly limited and subject to prior sale. In very good antique condition. 6 1/2"D x 4 7/8"H.