Lot #: 52
Price Realized: $2,185.00
($1,900 hammer, plus 15% buyer's premium)
PLEASE NOTE: This result is 11 years old, and the American ceramics market frequently changes. Additionally, small nuances of color, condition, shape, etc. can mean huge differences in price. If you're interested in having us sell a similar item for you, please contact us here.
Extremely Rare Small-Sized Stoneware Jug with Slip-Trailed Cobalt Foliate and Spot Decoration, probably Adam States, Sr., Manhattan, NY, South Amboy, New Jersey, or Greenwich, Connecticut origin, mid 18th century, quart-sized ovoid jug with tooled, semi-rounded spout, decorated with a thickly slip-trailed foliate design surrounded by cobalt spots. The central stem of this design appears to form a curl on the right, in the manner of the often-studied watchspring designs of New Jersey and Manhattan; however, the midsection of this watch spring is incomplete. Additional crudely-applied cobalt highlights to handle terminals. The jug's foliate design with scrolled base is very similar to the decoration on a miniature jug sold by Crocker Farm, Inc. on March 5, 2011, attributed to Adam States, Sr. (The attribution of the 2011 jug had been based on the similarity of the jug's color and decoration to an important stoneware pouring vessel with inscription to Elizabeth States, the wife of Adam States, Sr.) The jug offered in this auction, when compared to the 2011 jug, has the same unusual thickness to the slip-trailing and a similar distinctive spout. Throughout his career, States was active in South Amboy, New Jersey, Greenwich, Connecticut, and briefly in Manhattan, NY, making this jug a possible product of any of these cities. Intact American stoneware vessels from this period are considered extremely rare, and significant to our understanding of how a distinctly "American" style of stoneware was created by European immigrant potters. Literature: For more information on this important colonial American potter, see Goldberg, Warwick, and Warwick, "The Eighteenth-Century New Jersey Stoneware Potteries of Captain James Morgan and the Kemple Family," Ceramics in America 2008, pp. 33-35. Chipping around base. A small spout chip. Otherwise excellent condition. H 8 1/4".
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