1896

Mug

Edwin AtLee Barber was the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s first curator of pottery and porcelain (and later director of the Museum), who in 1907 published one of few English-language books of its time on stoneware ceramics. Although the circumstances of the collaboration are unknown, Barber‘s interest in the material evidently led to the charming decoration of this mug, which plays on the moralizing messages of historic pieces.