Small Jug with Handle

The history of the art pottery movement in America is bound to the rise of china painting as a feminine social activity of the upper class. The founder of Rookwood Pottery, Maria Longworth Nichols, was also inspired in her undertaking by the arts of Japan, which she saw at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This early piece in the form of a European jug is decorated in an orientalizing manner, and its decoration is exemplary of her founding artistic vision: stalks of black bamboo imitating monochrome ink painting flank a sparrow-like bird in flight rendered in colorful slip paints. Gilt flecks in imitation of Japanese lacquerware or screen painting further enliven the image. The piece is fully marked, including the initials of the painter of the juglet—the fourteen-year-old Martin Rettig, who was active at Rookwood for only two years. Although modest in size, this vessel offers a classic early example of Rookwood art pottery.