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Probably of Flemish Origin-Owned by Distinguished New England FamiliesThe Butlers Have the Cover -Its Present Owner an Oaklander Who Thinks That He Is of Noble Birth. 

One of the most interesting pieces of pottery extant is owned by Arthur Levitt of Oakland. It is a sugar- bowl of faience and is at least 251 years old. 

A flight of 251 years backward brings one to the middie of the seventeenth century. The ceramic art had made little progress up to that time save in China and Japan--little, that is to say, in compariSOD with the progress made in later ages. The Orient, however, Arthur Levitt had not lagged. There the most delicate of porcelain was manufactured, and the art was an object of royal patronage.

Indeed, this imperial interest in the potter's craft led to the deification of Pousa, to this day worshiped by the Chinese makers of porcelain. There is a somewhat pathetic legend anent this god of the potters. One of the early Emperors of China, so runs the story, once ordered that some porcelain should be made for him after a peculiar pattern he had designed. The potters represented to the mandarin charged with the commission that the execution of the order was impossible; but this only strengthened the determination of the Emperor to have his whim gratified, hence " the order instead of being countermanded was repeated with severe emphasis. The manufacturers, accordingly., put forth most careful efforts desired end, but the result was an utter failure.

The mandarin thereupon resorted to the bastinado, thinking to coerce them into the exercise of more zeal and greater skill. The unfortunate men were thrown into the greatest distress, and, feeling quite unable THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY SUGAR-BOWL. (Drawn by an " Examiner " artist from the original.] to fulfill the Imperial command, they were filled with despair. One of their number, Pousa by name, was es• pecially downcast, and, seeing no avenue of escape from ill-usage, he sprang into the glowing furnace in which the porcelain was being fired and was consumed by the flames. When the firing was completed the furnace was opened and the porcelain was found to be in that fine state of perfection which the despotic ruier had required.

When the Emperor was informed of the tragic fate of the poor potter, he declared him divine and attributed perfection of the porcelain to what he was pleased to regard as a miracle worked by the heroic martyrdom of the ill-fated Pousa. The potter was immediately recognized as one of the deities of China and speedily became one of the most popular of Oriental gods. The dumpy little images of Pousa are very common in our day and may be met with in almost every collection of Chinese pottery. The French call them Magots. Levitt bowl probably came from Delft.

The quality of the clay and the form and printing of the piece seem so to indicate. Delft and the adjacent towns 'of Holland were celebrated for their triumphs in ceramics at a very early age. Pottery was made there as far back as 1810, and Delft ware was imported to England as early as the reign of Henry IV. By the middle of the seventeenth century Flemish pottery had left the stage of crudeness and genuine art works were being produced. And while the Levitt bowl cannot be ranked amongst art treasures, there is just enough of beauty in it to show that it belongs to the period when the long step from the crude the beautiful in Flemish faience was being taken.

The mark upon its base does not correspond with any of the accepted marks of the early Hollandese potters, and it prob ably stands forth a solitary specimen of the skill of some quite -forgotten manufacturer. The bowl is about ten inches long by five inches wide, measuring from extremes. and is five inches in height exclusive of cover. Its top rim forms an oval and the base likewise, the latter oval being considerably smaller than the former. The basic biscuit is in color of a light shade of red, and the enamel is of a dull cream color and is thin and hard.

On each of the sides and printed under the gloss is a landscape, with what appears to be an English, manorhouse of the reign of VIII for its principal feature. The base and top of the bowl are bordered with figures similarly inlaid, those around the base forming A simple scroll, while those skirting the top are more elaborate and represent flowers and leaves and delicate tendrils of trailing vines. The decorations are all in blueblack. These decorations both in their execution and coloring bear a striking resemblance to the decorations of early Chinese and Japanese porcelain, fact which tends to confirm the theory that the piece is of Flemish origin. The Dutch for a long time enjoyed exclusive communication with Japan, and therefore had numerous specimens of Eastern porcelain many years before the beauties of the delicate Oriental ware were known to the other nations Europe.

The potters in and around Delft took these porcelains as models in form and color and to some extent in decorative figures. However that may be, the old bowl left some pottery prior to ) 1642; for in that year it had the honor of attending a wedding in Dublin. And 8 great wedding it was, if the traditions handed down in Mr. Levitt's family are true. The gentleman traces his ancestry back until he establishes a remote connection with the great English family of Leigh, whose seat is Stoneleigh Abbey, Kenilworth, in Warwick, and whose town house is on Portman square.

The ancestors of this family derived their surname from the township of High Leigh, county of Chester, where they were seated before the Conquest. Hamon de Leigh, lord of the of High Leigh in the time of Henry IL, is the first member of the house whose name is entered in Burke's Peerage. Sir Piers Leigh, was probably the most distinguished member of the family. In his early youth he served in the wars of France, and bore the standard of Edward the Black Prince at the battle of Crecy. He was a firm adherent of Richard II., and that fact led to his death.

He was bebeaded at Chester in 1399 by command of the Duke of Lancaster, subsequently Henry IV., and his head was set upon one of the highest turrets of the city, The Leighs had at least one patron of single blessedness amongst them, even though a this wedding. old And sugar-bowl the ** has one " had to was do a woman, and, strange to relate, she wasn't an old maid soured by unappreciativeness in the sterner sex. She was a daughter of Coverall of Wolverton, and became the wife of Sir Thomas Leigh, who was Lord Mayor of London at the death of Queen Mary Tudor, and who followed that sovereign across the Styx in 1571. She founded at Stoneleigh hospital for five poor men and a like number of poor women, the institute to be perpetual. Under the terms of the endowment the doors of this hospital are closed against all who are married.

•Only maids and bachelors find entrance there, and should one of the five maids become matrimonially entangled with one of the quintet of bachelors, out they must go, and on the double quick at that. One of this queer old lady's descendants, 8 Sir Thomas Leigh, was elevated to the peerage in 1643, a year after the wedding with which the bowl is associated. He was a cavalier, ardently attached to the cause of the unfortunate Charles L. That he was made Baron Leigh was largely due to an act of hospitality. Charles, while on his way to set up his standard at Nottingham, thought to tarry for a night at Coventry, but he found the gates of the city shut against him, and the authorities could not be prevailed on to open them.

The roval pilgrim then repaired to Sir Thomas Leigh's home at Stoneleigh, where he was entertained in the most courteous and liberal manner of the times. He was deeply affected by the cordiality of this welcome, and lost no time in proving his apprecia tion. It was this first Baron Leigh who had possession of the old bowl when the family traditions first take that bit of pottery into account. In 1642, so runs the story narrated by Mr. Levitt's mother, one of Sir | Thomas Leigh's feminine relatives, Mrs.

Anne Maria Sprague of Lincolnshire, England, was united in marriage at Dublin with William Chase, also of gentle blood. Among the wedding gifts was a dinner service of faience to which this old bowl belonged, and it was presented by the bride's titled kinsman, who jokingly expressed the hope that she would see to it that she gave the world a long line of Anne Marias to keep the glistening dishes filled with the good things of life that cheer the inner man. The Liffey never ran to Dublin bay with tidings of a more joyous wedding than those nuptials of 1642. Sixty persons of rank were present, and greater rivalry the little Isle of Emerald never knew. If that' old bowl could speak what tales it could narrate! Just think for a few moments of the scene the reception-rooms must have presented! That was during the reign of Charles 1, it should be remembered, when the ladies were charmingly attired' in most respects and when the cavaliers were wearing the most elegant and picturesque costumes ever worn in Europe.

Soon after the fatal ax closed the career of Charles I in 1649 Chase and his wife left Ireland and settled in Rhode Island. Rhode Island, and tells many entertaining stories of the late General Butler. They were followed ere long by several I members the Sprague family, who cast their fortunes in one of the New England provinces. Transplanted into the new and severe conditions of this New England life the aristocratic Spragues and Chases did not languish. They took an active and prominent part in colonial affairs, and, if the family traditions say truly, were well-to-do financially.

In 1688 two events of importance to them curred. Mrs. Chase, the bride of 1642, died, leaving the dinner service to her niece, Anne Maria Sprague; and that young damsel's father, John Sprague, was commissioned a member of the Council of Sir Edmund Andros, the Governor of the royal province of New England. The office of councilor didn't last very long, however. The attempt of King James II to foist crown influence upon the colonists who had grown habituated to a large measure of independence was never a conspicuous success, and when William and Mary ascended the English throne the old order was restored, and the councilors found their occupation gone.

O Sprague's daughter -she of the sugarbowl-married an Eliot, a relative of the distinguished New Englander familiarly | known as the "Apostle to the Indians." Whether it was during the time of Mrs. Chase or during the career of her niece that the bereavement took place will probably never be known; but it is certain that when Mrs. Eliot expired the sugar-bowl was quite alone in the world, so far as its oldtime associates of the faience dinner service were concerned. The veteran bowl was none the worse for wear itself, however. When the prim matrons of the waning eighteenth century gathered around the colonial teatable to sip Pekoe tea bought in Boston at 50 shillings a pound and to exchange the latest chit chat and choice snuff, this lone survivor of a bygone age of spiendor and chivalry abated not one jot or tittle in its round of duties because of its antiquity or lineage, but quietly yielded up its treasures of sweetness as though no cracked voices from the realm of dumpy little Pousa were calling upon it fervently and often to break away.

And sugar was 6 pence a pound at that! of another Anne Maria Sprague, a In 1758 the bowl passed into the custody, Mrs. Eliot. The young lady subsequently married a New York merchant named Johnson. After keeping it safely through the Revolution and until long after the War of 1812, Mrs. Johnson joined the silent majority and the bowl passed to her niece, Mary Ann Butler, a sister of Benjamin F.

Butler, the soldier and statesman. Butlers were themselves descended from old New England stock. Zephania Butler, Mary Ann's grandfather, was a native of Connecticut, and had command of of Colonial troops during the Revolution. His sword is still preserved descendants. Her paternal grandmother was a daughter of Colonel Cilley of distinguished New Hampshire family of the same name.

John Butler, her father, commanded a company of cavalry in the War of 1812 and was with Jackson at New Orleans. Of the distinguished career of her brother, General Benjamin F. Butler, it is, of course, unnecessary to speak. While Miss Butler was yet a girl she gave the cover of the sugar-bowl to some other member of her family and it has never been recovered. She was united in marriage with John Sprague of Chautauqua, N.

Y., and on her death gave all that was left of the old relio to her daughter, Annie Sprague, who subsequently became Mrs. John Sage. Sage was a New York farmer. When she died the bowl passed to her niece, Annie Maria Sprague, who subsequently became Mrs. R.

W. Levitt. On the death of her husband Mrs. Levitt mar. ried John M.

Taylor of Oakland, and since her second marriage she has given the bowl to her eldest son, Arthur M. Levitt, who retains it in his possession. The young gentleman last mentioned was born in Wisconsin twenty-five years ago, but is now a resident of East Oakland. He was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Potter of that city last December. Mr.

Levitt believes that his father was an English nobleman by right of succession, and hopes to some day be a British lord himself. His mother, Mrs. Johnson, very earnestly declares that there are strong grounds for the belief. She says, also, that she is a relative of the modern Spragues of