Patriotic Child’s Cup — “Secession is Played Out”
American, likely just post–Civil War — Height: 2⅜ inches
 
A small ceramic child’s cup decorated with hand-painted patriotic imagery, including crossed American flags surmounted by a spread-wing eagle and a field cannon below. At the center appears the inscription “Secession is played out.”, rendered in flowing blue script.
 
The slogan reflects Unionist sentiment at the close of the Civil War, proclaiming the defeat of the Confederate cause. On the present example, the word appears with the unconventional spelling “Secefsion,” likely the result of a phonetic rendering by the decorator, a characteristic occasionally encountered on hand-decorated patriotic wares of the period.
 
Patriotic children’s cups such as this were produced as inexpensive domestic novelties combining national imagery with contemporary political sentiment. Surviving examples provide an evocative glimpse into the visual culture of the immediate postwar period.
 
Condition: Very fine.