'Stone-ware of excellent quality, Alexandria manufacture' Part I: The Pottery of John Swann

摘要

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, is well known for its beautiful nineteenth-century stoneware, often decorated with elaborate designs in brushed or slip-trailed cobalt (fig. 1). It has been said that this stoneware is "among the best-documented and most recognizable of American ceramic products." Alexandria's best-known potter is Benedict C. Milburn, who began work at the Wilkes Street Pottery in the early 1830s and purchased the business in 1841. An article on the story of Milburn and his stoneware is slated to appear in the next volume of Ceramics in America. As way of prologue, this article examines the early years of Alexandria stoneware as well as the life of John Swann, the founder of the Wilkes Street Pottery.