This is one of the most unusual and visual items I've seen in salt-glazed pottery.  It was made by Ridgway and dated October 1, 1835 on the bottom.  This is a pitcher with a shaped pewter lid, that perfectly fits the curves of the pitcher, bending over the spout, and having a handle of sorts at the top, to lift the lid.  The maker even created a pewter lip on the pottery so that the pottery would not be damaged by the lid hitting the edge of the pottery.

The decorative design is what makes this unique.  It features scenes from the poem Tam O'Shanter by the English poet, Robert Burns.  The pottery features a drinking tavern scene on one side, and on the other there are two witches chasing Tam on his horse, Meg at the edge of the river over a bridge, with one witch pulling on the horse's tail.  For those of you that are not good at translating early British poetry, here is a synopsis of the poem from Wikipedia:

 "Tam o' Shanter" is a narrative poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1790, while living in Dumfries. First published in 1791, it is one of Burns' longer poems, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.

The poem describes the habits of Tam, a farmer who often gets drunk with his friends in a public house in the Scottish town of Ayr, and his thoughtless ways, specifically towards his wife, who is waiting at home for him, angry. At the conclusion of one such late-night revel after a market day, Tam rides home on his horse Meg while a storm is brewing. On the way he sees the local haunted church lit up, with witches and warlocks dancing and the devil playing the bagpipes. He is still drunk, still upon his horse, just on the edge of the light, watching, amazed to see the place bedecked with many gruesome things such as gibbet irons and knives that had been used to commit murders and other macabre artifacts. The witches are dancing as the music intensifies and, upon seeing one particularly wanton witch in a short dress he loses his reason and shouts,`Weel done, cutty-sark!' (cutty-sark : "short shirt"). Immediately, the lights go out, the music and dancing stops and many of the creatures lunge after Tam, with the witches leading. Tam spurs Meg to turn and flee and drives the horse on towards the River Doon as the creatures dare not cross a running stream. The creatures give chase and the witches come so close to catching Tam and Meg that they pull Meg's tail off just as she reaches the Brig o' Doon.

There appears to be no damage to the pitcher, no chips, cracks, or hairlines.  It is amazing when a historical item, such as this survives for over 150 years!  I believe it is just wonderful, and actually difficult to part with.  This type of pottery is referred to as "drabware" or "yellow-ware" pottery.  It is a type of salt-glazed pottery.

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