Bear Bottle

Artist/Maker
Christ, Rudolph __Attributed to ||Holland, John __Attributed to
Place Made
Salem North Carolina United States of America
Date Made
1810-1830
Medium
earthenware
Dimensions
HOA: 6 1/2″
Accession Number
89.53
Description
The design of Moravian bear bottles, which initially appear on the 1810 inventory, may allude to that animal’s reputation as a nuisance. On May 16, 1755, the Bethabara diarist recorded “last night a bear ate one of our best hogs.” Based on inventory references and surviving examples, the Salem pottery produced only one model of a bear bottle, which depicts the animal with a slain pig beneath its feet. The bottle is press molded earthenware and covered in a dark brown lead glaze. The molds used to make this bottle are in the collection of the Wachovia Historical Society.

Moravian potters in North Carolina made press-molded earthenware for more than one hundred and twenty-five years. The range of forms documented by surviving objects, molds, and references in pottery inventories is far greater than that of any contemporary American ceramic tradition. From smoking pipes to stove tiles, the Moravian potters at Bethabara and Salem expanded the production of press-molded earthenware to include figural bottles and casters, non-figural bottles, and toys. A press mold was usually plaster, consisting of two parts with the exterior design of the bottle impressed (from a model)on the interior of each half of the mold. Once the clay was set up, the molds were removed and the form remained with the impressions of the mold.

Moravian potters in North Carolina made press-molded earthenware for more than one hundred and twenty-five years. The range of forms documented by surviving objects, molds, and references in pottery inventories is far greater than that of any contemporary American ceramic tradition. From smoking pipes to stove tiles, the Moravian potters at Bethabara and Salem expanded the production of press-molded earthenware to include figural bottles and casters, non-figural bottles, and toys. A press mold was usually plaster, consisting of two parts with the exterior design of the bottle carved on the interior of each half of the mold. Once the clay was set up, the molds were removed and the form remained with the impressions of the mold.

Rudolph Christ can be credited for the successful production and marketing of press molded figural wares during his tenure as master of the pottery at Salem
(1789–1821). Rudolph Christ apprenticed under Gottfried Aust in Salem, North Carolina. He established his own pottery in Bethabara in 1786 and worked there until 1789. He succeeded Aust as master potter in Salem from 1789 to 1821. (Ceramics in America 2009) The production of press-molded wares also continued through the tenure of John Holland, who apprenticed under Rudolph Christ and as noted in Moravian records, inherited molds used in Christ’s shop. Rudolph Christ retired in 1821 and John Holland took over as Salem’s third master potter. Although the pottery ceased to operate as a congregational business in 1829, production of press-molded wares continued in the shop of Holland and another Salem, potter, Heinrich Schaffner until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.

Brown, Johanna. “Tradition and Adaptation in Moravian Press-Molded Wares.” CERAMICS IN AMERICA (2009) 105-138.

Erickson, Michelle; Hunter, Robert; and Hannah, Caroline M. “Making a Moravian Squirrel Bottle.” CERAMICS IN AMERICA. (2009): 199-216.

History
PROVENANCE: Seller received from her great-great grandmother, Elisabeth Vogler, widow Peddycoart, m.n. Hamilton, who lived in the Friedburg section.

Press Molded
Moravian potters in North Carolina made press-molded earthenware for
more than one hundred and twenty-five years. The range of forms documented
by surviving objects, molds, and references in pottery inventories
is far greater than that of any contemporary American ceramic tradition.
From smoking pipes to stove tiles, the Moravian potters at Bethabara and
Salem expanded the production of press-molded earthenware to include
figural bottles and casters, non-figural bottles, and toys. Rudolph Christ
can be credited for the successful production and marketing of press-molded
figural wares during his tenure as master of the pottery at Salem
(1789–1821).(Art in Clay Gallery Guide)
Flasks & Figures
Moravian potters made thrown flasks, bottles, and other utilitarian forms
long before introducing press-molded variants around 1800. During the
first quarter of the nineteenth century, the variety of figural objects listed
in the pottery inventories expanded with each passing year. A molded
flask with a stylized flower may represent one of the “57 bottles” listed in
the 1810 inventory of the Salem pottery or one of the sixty green bottles
listed in the 1824 inventory. In 1819 the stock-in-trade of the Salem
pottery included eighty-four eagle bottles and plaster molds for producing
two different sizes. Of the three bottles known to survive, all are the
same size and have green glaze applied on a white slip. The 1819 inventory
also listed one hundred and seventy-five “ladies” in three different sizes.
Children enjoyed press-molded wares specially designed for them including
doll heads to which cloth bodies could be attached. A figural form
likely inspired by contact with Native Americans was the so-called “Indian.”
The ceramic Indians listed at 10 shillings each in the 1806
inventory were the most expensive bottles made at the Salem pottery. No
examples of this figure or its molds are known to survive.(Art in Clay Gallery Guide)

Bears, Foxes and Squirrels
The design of Moravian bear bottles, which initially appear on the 1810
inventory, may allude to that animal’s reputation as a nuisance. On May
16, 1755, the Bethabara diarist recorded “last night a bear ate one of our
best hogs.” Based on inventory references and surviving examples, the
Salem pottery produced only one model of a bear bottle, which depicts
the animal with a slain pig beneath its feet. The press-molded fox
casters made at the Salem pottery by 1810 depict that animal as a cunning
predator holding a slain chicken between its paws. Only two identical
examples are known, but inventory references suggest that the Moravian
potters produced two sizes. The foxes listed in 1808 were valued at 1 shilling
each, whereas those listed in 1810 were assessed at 6 pence each—the
latter being the same as the smallest fish bottles. The squirrel was a
popular pet and the subject of whimsical representation in paintings,
toys, and various ceramic objects in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Two basic types of Moravian squirrel bottles survive: one stands
upright and typically clasps a nut between its front paws; the other leans
slightly forward with its head elevated. These two models were probably
represented in the 1806 pottery inventory, which lists ninety-six squirrel
bottles at 3 shillings 6 pence each and forty-five at 2 shillings each.
(Art in Clay Gallery Guide)

Also see “Ceramics in America” 2009

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. Frank L. Horton