Item 12192
 
Coming to you from Doc's Crocks is this Rare 5 Gallon Stoneware Churn whose form and decoration indicate that it was made by Stephen B. Sweeney, Henrico County, Virginia, James River.  Sweeney made pottery from 1835 to 1862.
 
For more on Sweeney, see Curtis Rice, James River Stoneware and the S. S. Perry Connection, pp. 180-208 and Eric C. Jenkins, Ceramics in Virginia, pp. 62-115. 
 
A similar one is published:  Mueller-Heubach, "From Kaolin to Claymount: Landscapes of the 19th Century James River Stoneware Industry." Doctoral Dissertation, College of William and Mary, p. 163, figure 78. Parallel examples in Kurt Russ, Rob Hunter, Oliver Meuller-Heubach, and Marshall Goodman, "The Remarkable 19th-Century Stoneware of Virginia's Lower James River Valley," in Robert Hunter, ed., Ceramics in America 2013,  p. 249. figure 75. 
 
Dating to the mid-19th century, this beauty features a Tall and Slender Form, Carefully Tooled Tall Rim and Shoulder, Handles with Cobalt Accents at the Terminals, and a Brushed Cobalt Tree of Life on Each Side with a Stem Sporting Six Cotton Ball Blossoms.  Stands 19" tall.
 
Excellent Condition.  Two chips outside the rim by one handle (1/2", 3/4"), and two chips at the base (1 1/2", 1 3/4").  No inner rim chips, hairlines, cracks, stains, or restoration.  A stone pop in one bottom blossom and slump on the rim in the making. 
 
Ships double-boxed, insured, and FREE
 
529020562