I sent these images to a Texas collector of stoneware, hoping that he could tell me definitively what I had lucked on to. That didn't really happen, although his email back to me began, "Cracks me up... IT'S EVERYTHING!". There seems to be some McDade, Meyer, Limestone County (all Texas), and even Missouri/Midwest influence in the form, glaze, handles. That would make sense because all early Texas potters began somewhere else and brought the skills and influences of another region of the country to Texas.
How about that cobalt blue 5? What does it say?
Even though I've been the proud steward of some wonderful pieces of Texas stoneware—passed on to other collectors several years ago—I am still a novice. Without a signature, it's still conjecture, and up to the so-called experts to identify.
Regardless of where this beauty began, I will gladly be its steward for a while, here in my adopted home, New Mexico.
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A similar piece identified as McDade, in Texas Pottery Field Guide, Volume 1, by Dale Ross, published in 2008.
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