Important and Possibly Unique Two-Gallon Stoneware Jug with Incised Bird Decoration, Stamped "DAVID MORGAN. / NEW YORK", Manhattan, NY origin, circa 1800, ovoid jug with footed base and tooled spout, decorated with an incised and cobalt-highlighted design of a crested bird with ringed neck and turned head, perched on a stylized leaf. Good detail to decoration, including incised X's along the bird's neck ring and incised feathers on wing. Reverse impressed with the cobalt-highlighted maker's mark, "DAVID MORGAN. / NEW-YORK". Brushed cobalt highlights to handle terminals. This jug is regarded as the finest example of surviving stoneware produced at the short-lived Corlears Hook pottery of David Morgan. It is believed to be one of two known examples of signed Manhattan stoneware with incised bird decoration. (The second such piece is an iconic Clarkson Crolius, Sr. jug, previously owned by the Keno brothers, which sold in Crocker Farm's November 3, 2007 auction.) The artist of the Morgan jug evidently took pride in this work as space was found on the reverse for the maker's mark, a treatment unknown among any other extant Manhattan jugs. Easily one of the most important examples of Manhattan stoneware to come to auction years. Provenance: Property of a New York State collector. A crack to handle. Hairline to shoulder below upper handle terminal. A chip and hairlines to spout. Some additional lines to bottom half of jug, probably in-the-firing, common among pieces of this age and origin. A few typical, small in-the-firing flaws to surface. H 15".
