JOHN B. LIPPOLD (WASHINGTON DC, 1876-1950) EARTHENWARE / REDWARE DOG / SPANIEL DOORSTOP, unglazed buff-colored earthenware with cold-painted coats of old silver over an older bronze with some green at rear, full-bodied left-facing form, molded after a corresponding English Staffordshire spaniel of the same period, sitting with tail around hind legs, wearing a collar with locket and a chain, having pierced features including eyes and nostrils and the chain, hollow underside with asymmetrical oval base being part of the mold. Incised writing to interior consisting of "1902", "John" (in script), and "LIPPOLD". Washington, DC, possibly made at the pottery of Paul Hiser & Sons or an unidentified terra cotta factory. Circa 1902. 9" HOA, 6 1/2" LOA.
Catalogue Note: John B. Lippold was born in Maryland to German immigrant parents Viet and Margaretta. He and his family never strayed far from the Washington, DC area; John and his father lived and worked in the Terra Cotta neighborhood, which for many years was the center of the potting industry in the District of Columbia. An article in DC's "Evening Star" newspaper (on page 6 of the June 1st, 1889 edition) describes the neighborhood as having a supply of clay "so enormous that sewer pipe and stoneware for the entire country could be manufactured here for a generation without exhausting the great beds of merchantable earth". This concentration of various clays attracted at least two large-scale industrial operations: The Potomac Terra Cotta Company and the National Terra Cotta Works, both of which seemed to specialize in sewer pipe and drain tile at the time of the 1889 article. It was also home to the stoneware and earthenware pottery of Paul Hiser (1824-1904), who established his own pottery in 1869 and moved to Terra Cotta in 1876. He was still working as a potter himself (along with his sons) at the time of the 1900 census; his sons Paul Jr. and Daniel were living in Terra Cotta and both were listed as "Laborer (at) Pottery". On the next page of the census, one finds the Lippold family just a few dwellings away, where John is listed as a "Moulder (at) Pottery". John certainly worked at either Hiser's, or at a Terra Cotta factory, possibly both, given the potteries' proximity. The clay body of the dog seems to be a low-fired buff earthenware with sandy inclusions, a far cry from the salt-glazed and "highly vitrified" sewer pipe fired at the larger factories, suggesting Lippold more likely created this dog at Hiser's pottery out of local earthenware. His occupation indicates he would have been able to easily create a mold to copy an existing doorstop. An interesting note is that it appears he chose to copy the form of a dog known to be used by the Bell family of potters in nearby Strasburg, Virginia. The nature of any connection to the similar Bell spaniels has not been established, although at least one other auction house has already noted a Strasburg influence in the style of the few known decorated stoneware works with Hiser's stamp. Further research will hopefully be able to elaborate on this relationship.

Excellent condition with a few shallow chips/flakes and several areas of paint loss including to nose, ears, and base edge.