Featured Unmarked white glazed water pitcher

I have decided to post to this forum because I'm quite lost in determining the age, manufacturer and possible place of origin of my white glazed water pitcher. I picked this piece up at an antique mall for about 20 dollars and it was marked as "very early water pitcher". Now I don't know what "early" is in their books, because water pitchers have been around since antiquity, but upon looking at it, I determined it's likely no older than 18th century. This is in the United States, so they were likely referencing colonial North America.

As can be observed in the photos below, this pitcher has no makers mark and the bottom appears to have been glazed over as well, something I found odd. The amount of pin-holing in the glaze is crazy, and the crazing in the glaze appears to be random. Another thing I found odd is that there are certain areas where it looked like it chipped and was glazed over, most notably the large chip on the base of the pitcher. There also appears to be some kind of line that can be distinguished upon looking at it in front of the spout. This line cannot be distinguished from the inside of the pitcher, so I don't know what that is about.

I could go on, but I don't want this to be a super long post. If anybody can help in determining any one of the following: age, maker and place of origin, that would be extremely appreciated, thank you!

 

It may have been part of a wash set. Sometimes only the basins were marked.

 

The line down the spout and front looks like it may be a seam. Does it feel like it when you run your fingers across it?

 

It's tin glazed, hence the pops. I'd agree it looks moulded, with an applied handle. Nice thumb rest. The reason the base is glazed is that the whole thing was dipped.

 

This 71 year old thumb could never use that as a thumb rest.

 

Thank you all for the feedback! To start off, I did initially think this was part of a wash basin set, but I would think wash basins are larger than this piece. As for the seams, I don't have any doubts that there is one present on the front and back. I could easily tell that the handle was applied by hand, it's off center from the seam by a fair margin.

Learning that it's a Tin glaze is completely new to me, and I appreciate the information. When researching what this glaze might be, the closest hits I could get were white salt glaze pitchers.

I'm unaware if the method upon which this pitcher was made (molded and dipped) means it's a recent production and non-antique, but I won't be upset. I think it's a lovely little thing and I didn't spend too much on it. If anybody has any guestimates on a possible date range, that would be awesome.

 

Dipping as a technique goes back thousands of years, and moulds have been used for centuries. Probably almost as long. If I saw your jug here, UK, I'd think it might well be early 19th or even 18th. That's based on the decoration. If you see tin glaze enough, it's unmistakable. Very high white and gloopy.

Salt glazes produce a sort of rough finish rather than the smoothness you get from tin glaze. I collect Doulton Lambeth: their sanitary and utility wares wre generally salt glazed, as it's so resilient. They then added decorative items and used the same techniques, often.

 

Ah, I kind of figured those techniques have been around for a while. Looks like we share a similar dating range, I was thinking 19th century or 18th century possibly.

It appears my pictures may have failed to capture the true color of my pitcher because I had the flash on, but I wouldn't say it's "white". The color of my pitcher is more beige in natural lighting, but definitely not like porcelain white. Yet the surface does retain a relatively smooth finish while looking "gloopy" like the glaze was sloppily applied.

I didn't point out the fact the base material appears to be some crude clay compound in my initial post by looking at the chipping areas. The exposed material on the base even appears to show some little pebbles or some other material in the clay matrix. I assumed this was normal with earthenware.

 

A fairly crude base is typical of much utilitarian tin glaze. Made to be used.

 

Many thanks for your insight! if anybody else has information they wish to share I would love to read it.