Ball Hughes Favorite Pitcher

I receive new information and requests for information almost every week. Recently this unique item was brought to my attention. It's a handsome relief molded pitcher with a brass tag attached to the handle by a brass wire.

One side is inscribed "Ball Hughes Favorite Pitcher". The other side is inscribed "E.B.H. to Daniel B. Steadman with kind regard, Nov 26th 1868". "EBH" are the initials of Eliza Ball Hughes, Robert Ball Hughes wife.

This gift was given about 8 months after Ball Hughes death in March, 1868. A Daniel B. Steadman was born in 1826 in South Boston and was presumably a friend of the Ball Hughes family.



This item has been in one family for over 40 years. The owner's grandmother was a collector of American antiques and may have picked it up at auction (Sounds like the Antique Roadshow!). This pitcher is English, about 9" tall and in perfect condition.

The pitcher is a type of thinly potted stoneware with moulded designs, popular during the years 1830's-60's. (I believe it may be known as creamware.) They were inexpensive but artistic, and used to serve a variety of hot and cold liquids, including water, beer, milk, mulled ale and wine.

The pitcher was registered in 1857 according to the English registry mark on the bottom. It could have been made in 1857 or within a few years after registration of the design. Today, this type of pitcher can sell for over $500.

Many thanks to Sally Rude for providing the images and information above.

New Details About the Brown's & the Ball Hughes

I am always amazed at the new information I discover when I review books, articles, and websites that I have researched before. While searching for more information about the Patrick Henry statuette, I found the book, The Lineage Book of the Order of Washington by J. G. B. Bulloch, M.D. It includes details about Robert Ball Hughes grandson, George Edward Brown (1857-1933). He was a charter member of the Order of Washington that was formed in 1895 and reorganized in 1908.

I discovered from the book that seven or eight members of George's mothers family were artists. That would include George's mother, Augusta Ball (Hughes) Brown, her sister, Georgina, Augusta's parents, Robert and Eliza Ball Hughes, and several others who are not known. We know that Eliza was trained in the arts, an artist, and an art teacher, Georgina was an accomplished painter and art teacher, and Augusta was an amateur artist.

I also discovered that George's father, Benjamin Franklin Brown, was a Boston merchant. Owing to ill-health, George spent some time with his family in Europe in 1875, presumably in London with his aunt, Georgina Ball Hughes, who spent much of her time there, and possibly his mother. The Statue of Hamilton research led me to the Patrick Henry statuette and that research led me to George Edward Brown and more information about my ancestors.

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Statuette of Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry: Liberty or Death
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Art Inventories Catalog

Image S9D630004_b.jpg available on SIRIS

While researching Robert Ball Hughes plaster model for the Alexander Hamilton statue, I came across a record for this statue by Ball Hughes in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Art Inventories Catalog on the SIRIS database. I have searched this database before and never saw this statuette. I was quite excited to see an image of it.

The SIRIS record states that the 26" high plaster statuette is inscribed "Liberty or Death" on the base. The description says: "Full-length portrait of Patrick Henry. He holds his drawn sword in his upraised proper right hand and points downward with his proper left hand. His hat is on the ground behind him." The statuette is owned by a private collector near Boston.

In the article, Patrick Henry: Sentinel for the People, William Rasmussen of the Virginia Historical Society wrote "Henry's military role was celebrated well into the nineteenth century. In the 1830s, Robert Ball Hughes depicted this side of Henry's public service with a small, standing sculpture of the Virginia colonel. This fragile plaster figure is one of many by Hughes never put into marble or bronze due to the artist's poverty and lack of patronage." The article appeared in the February - March 1996 issue of American Art Review. The article is available on the scholarly Traditional Fine Arts Organization website.

Note that in the 1830's, Ball Hughes survived the Cholera of 1832 in New York by fleeing the city and he lived through the The Panic of 1837. These events no doubt had an effect on Ball Hughes poverty and lack of patronage.

Rev. 10/7/2009

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