Sugar bowl and creamer

Creator

Pauline Pottery, 1883-1909

Date

• 1888-1909

Summary

• Cream pitcher and sugar bowl, Pauline Pottery, Edgerton, 1888-1894 or 1902-1909. Molded earthenware cream pitcher and matching sugar bowl, both in lobed shapes with scalloped rims. Hand-painted with violets in blue, yellow, green, brown, and black underglaze. Rims and pitcher handle overglazed with gilt. Shape #100.
• The Pauline Pottery was a commercial art pottery works established by Pauline Jacobus in Chicago in 1883. In 1888, Jacobus and her husband Oscar relocated the company to Edgerton, Wisconsin in order to gain access to the high-quality cream-colored earthenware clay beds found in the area. In Edgerton, Oscar managed the production of porous earthenware cups for electric batteries (the pottery's primary income generator) while Pauline worked with a staff of women decorators to create ornamental wares decorated with hand-painted underglaze. Faced with financial difficulties after the death of Oscar Jacobus, the pottery was forced to close in 1894. In 1902, Pauline Jacobus reopened the Pauline Pottery on a smaller scale, operating the company from her own home until her retirement in 1909.