Exceptional Richard Remmey, Philadelphia Stoneware Jar w/ Man's Profile and Double Birds Motifs

November 3, 2018 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 92

Price Realized: $2,360.00

($2,000 hammer, plus 18% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 6 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.

November 3, 2018 Auction Catalog

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Exceptional One-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Cobalt Face and Double-Bird Decoration, attributed to Henry Harrison Remmey or Richard Clinton Remmey, Philadelphia, PA, circa 1860, cylindrical jar with tooled shoulder and squared rim, decorated on one side with a brushed folk art design of a man's face in profile, featuring a pronounced chin and loosely-brushed hair, along with two horizontal tulips above in the classic Remmey style. Reverse decorated with a brushed design of two facing birds with heart-shaped bodies and brushed feather detail, perched atop a plant, including stylized floral brushwork above. The Remmeys' Philadelphia stoneware potteries served as prolific manufacturing sites for several decades of the 19th century, the vast majority of their output featuring standardized floral motifs. Among the tens-of-thousands of Remmey stoneware objects from Philadelphia that survive today, this jar is the only example that we have seen with a brushed design of a human face. Other iconic face vessels exist from the Remmeys' Philadelphia tenure, which involve hand-modeled and applied clay facial features. The heart-shaped "lovebirds" on the jar's reverse, perhaps equally as engaging as the jar's face motif, suggest this piece may have been made as a wedding gift. The fact that the Remmeys' Philadelphia potteries rarely strayed from standardized motifs, even on their rarest forms, strongly suggests this jar was a specially-made presentation piece. Among the most important examples of Remmey brushed decoration known. Excellent condition with a few small, shallow chips to interior of rim and two minuscule nicks to exterior of rim. H 10 1/2".