Art Institute of Chicago

Plate

Rudolph Drach (American, 1759–after 1814)

Date

1792

Medium

Earthenware (redware), cream-colored slip, and colored lead glazes

Culture

Bedminster

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Little is known about the potter of this plate, Rudolph Drach. The artist's grandfather Rudolph Drach was among seventy-seven Palatinate Germans who, along with their families, arrived in Philadelphia on August 29, 1730, and he eventually settled in Bucks County. This plate, made in 1792 according to the incised inscription, was originally in the collection of Edwin Atlee Barber and was illustrated in his Tulip Ware of the Pennsylvania-German Potters (1903). Sgraffito decoration–the act of incising the surface to reveal the clay body beneath–characterizes many of the ceramics created in Bucks County in the Pennsylvania German tradition. Such pottery features exuberant colors and ornamentation through traditional decorative motifs, including the bird, tulip, and star shapes that decorate this plate.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.