Throughout the nineteenth century many everyday items, especially dishes and containers, were made of pewter. Affordability and availability were the main reasons for pewter's continued popularity. Glass and ceramic vessels were more expensive and less durable, and silver was simply too expensive. Large pewter pitchers, made both with and without hinged lids, were advertised as cider pitchers during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century. Many pewterers, including Roswell Gleason, George Richardson's employer before he moved to Cranston, made pitchers such as the one shown. The designs tend to be uniform. George Richardson's pitchers, like most of his work, exhibit an exceptional degree of originality and flair. Rather than the tall, flared neck and squat, bulbous body that most pitchers from this period share, Richardson pitchers have a short, straight neck, seamed to a pear-shaped body. The elongated body and short neck give the piece an elegant and refined proportion. Traditional English ale jugs are very similar in shape and probably inspired Richardson's design. The shape was adopted by only a few American pewterers. Inside the pitcher, a whimsical heart-shaped
cut-out forms the opening where the spout is attached. On the outside, solder seams joining the three pieces of the body are concealed with decorative banding, making the construction part of the design.

The "No. 1" stamped on the bottom of the pitcher presumably identifies the shape of the object. Richardson also made a pitcher with a hinged lid and a simpler handle, but otherwise identical, also stamped "No. 1." Pewterers varied their product lines by using the same basic forms, embellished with different, smaller cast elements such as lids and handles. A cast double-C scrolled handle, reminiscent of handles made for silver objects almost a century earlier, is unusually elaborate for pewter, as well as for the period, and gives the pitcher a bold silhouette. Wear associated with regular usage is indicated by repairs made to the rim near the spout and on the base. Pewterers typically found steady business in repair work because the softness of the metal combined with frequent use rendered it susceptible to breakage. Pewter's repairability is one of its virtues. Whereas dropping a ceramic or glass pitcher would destroy it, a dented or chipped pewter pitcher could easily be fixed and put back into service.

WNH and KB


REFERENCES

Lura Woodside Watkins. "George Richardson, Pewterer." Antiques XXXI, no. 4 (April 1937):
194-96.

Charles F. Montgomery. A History of American Pewter. New York: Praeger Publishing, 1973. P. 130.

Richard L. Bowen Jr. "The G. Richardson Problem II." Pewter Collector's Club of America Bulletin 8, no. 3 (March 1981): 104-21.

Richard L. Bowen Jr., "Some of Roswell Gleason's Early Workers." Pewter Collector's Club of America Bulletin 8, no. 4 (September 1981): 148-61.

Donald L. Fennimore. The Knopf Collectors' Guides to American Antiques, Silver and Pewter. New York: Alfred E. Knopf, 1984. Pp. 282, 283.