Figure 34 “MANUFACTURED / for ROBt H·Miller / ALEXANDRIA. / D·C.” Importer’s mark, England, ca. 1830. Whiteware. Robert H. Miller was one of Alexandria’s most successful businessmen. In 1822 he opened a shop at 317 King Street, on the Market Square, having traveled to England to select the first stock of china and earthenware. Miller’s advertisements in the Alexandria Gazette state that the Lafayette/Cornwallis wares were “executed expressly for him, from a drawing sent out” (July 14, 1825), and that the Harrison campaign wares are from “designs sent out to the Potteries by himself” (September 19, 1840). In fact the designs are stock prints, but he may have selected the prints and vessel forms from a catalog. This mark is from the base of an unknown ceramic vessel that was discarded about 1830 at 418–422 S. Royal Street (44ax30), in the historic free black neighborhood known as Hayti.
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