Description

Vintage and RARE Mid-Century Sgraffito style Turquoise PV Peasant Village Pitcher in excellent condition. Gorgeous turquoise blue glaze. No chips, cracks, or crazing. Contains the characteristic circled P.V. marking from Italy on the bottom. Dimensions: 9″ height x 4 1/2″ opening x 7″ width through the handle. A real heirloom piece!

The PV marks have been mis-described often (some refer to it as representing “Peasant Valley” or Pleasant Valley” because of one pottery maker that was called “Pleasant Valley”), but the general antiques expert consensus is that the PV mark represented a line created for, and imported by, Mittledorfer Strauss of New York. Peasant Village pieces were made in several countries (usually in smaller European locales – thus the “peasant village” designation), including France, Italy, Spain, and even the U.S. Mittledorfer used the PV logo beginning in 1928 and continued to use it through the 1960’s. The parent company, Mittledorfer Strauss, remained active into the 1970’s.

Sgraffito (in Italian “to scratch”) is a decorating pottery technique produced by applying layers of color or colors (underglazes or colored slips) to leather hard pottery and then scratching off parts of the layer(s) to create contrasting images, patterns and texture and reveal the clay color underneath.