Measurement: Height: 21"

Material: Stoneware [salt-glazed]

Condition: Restoration to rim chip and to 5” hairline near base, displays well

Additional Information: Decorated stoneware churn, probably Akron, Ohio, third quarter-19th
century. Ten gallons, slightly ovoid form with a large cobalt bird [Grouse] on a branch. This
churn is one of a group of decorated stoneware displaying a a left-facing bird.

One of that group is a churn incised with the name of potter William
McBurney of Akron and Middlebury. McBurney probably trained at
the Norton pottery and eventually moved to the Akron area in the
1860s. It is not certain whether McBurney made that churn, or all the
left-facing-bird objects. The McBurney churn is illustrated in A History
of Northeast Ohio Stoneware by F. Robert Treichler, page 57.
One of that group is a churn incised with the name of potter William
McBurney of Akron and Middlebury. McBurney probably trained at
the Norton pottery and eventually moved to the Akron area in the
1860s. It is not certain that McBurney made the churn, or the other
left-facing-bird pieces.
The McBurney churn is illustrated in A History of Northeast Ohio
Stoneware by F. Robert Treichler, page 57. A related churn is
illustrated on page 55, and bears the name D.S. Alexander, who was likely a merchant and
agent in Detroit. That jug is also discussed and illustrated in Equal in Goodness: Ohio
Decorative Arts 1788-1860, entry 104. Another Alexander piece (an 1876 Centennial jug) was
appraised by Alan Katz on the Antiques Roadshow in St. Paul, Minnesota, in June 2004. D.S.
Alexander was likely David Alexander, a farm implements dealer and the older brother of noted
businessman, J. Park Alexander (1834-1908). The younger Alexander engaged in a variety of
successful business ventures, however, is perhaps best known for the development of a
stoneware distribution network. He worked with several local potters and maintained
warehouses in Akron, Detroit, and Chicago.

The Alexander churn sold at Garth's, May 2012, lot 74.
PROVENANCE: Ex Collection of Jim Murphy of Grove City, Ohio.

From Garth's 05.15.2015 catalogue: Jim Murphy (1941 to 2012) spent more than three decades
researching Ohio pottery, often publishing his findings in short but highly important articles in
various publications, including the Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, as well as
several self-published pamphlets (some of which, along with his notes were posthumously
published by his friends Jeff Carskadden and Richard Gartley as James L. Murphy's Checklist
of 19th-Century Bluebird Potters and Potteries in Muskingum County, Ohio). His devotion to
collecting was just as passionate, and Jim amassed an encyclopedic collection of Ohio pottery.

859-11

492-210

1221-83