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This white transferware pitcher by Buffalo Pottery has a molded handle with flowers and stalks on the handle, and features blue and green flowers on each side. The bottom of the pitcher has the stamp "Semi-Vitreous Buffalo Pottery Chrysanthemum".
Starting in 1903, the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York began producing pottery to offer customers as premiums when they made mail order purchases of their soap products. This gift-with-purchase concept was the result of John Durrant Larkin –owner of the company – acting on the marketing strategy of his brother-in-law, Elbert Hubbard. Other products such as silk handkerchiefs, silver and imported dishware were given away years before Buffalo Pottery was even conceived.
Some of the first Buffalo products were semi-vitreous dinnerware sets, such as this pitcher in question. They would also go on to produce advertising mugs and plates, commemorative and historic lines of pottery featuring Roosevelt Bears or the likeness of George Washington. One of the most famous lines of pottery featured art centered on themes relating to the village life, literature and art of period England. Hand-painted scenes from Cecil Aldin’s “Fallowfield Hunt”, William Combe’s “The Three Tours of Dr. Syntax” and other stories were seen on pottery produced between 1908 and 1909.