Exceedingly Rare and Important American Redware Deep Dish with Profuse Sgraffito Rooster and Fish Decoration, Dated 1824, with flared sides and semi-rounded rim, the interior profusely-decorated with a sgraffito design of four large roosters, two with spot-decorated bodies and two with heavily-carved, "hollow" bodies, surrounded by a series of fish, tulip blossoms, and a smaller rooster with turned head. Interior of plate dated "1824". Green copper and brownish manganese decoration throughout, applied over a colorful, yellow slip ground flecked with iron. Wonderful figural designs executed with a great folk art quality. Outstanding use of the sgraffito decorative treatment, with large areas of bright orange clay revealed below the heavy yellow slip coating. A study of sgraffito-decorated redware in the collections of Winterthur and The Philadelphia Museum of Art could find no examples with such bold use of the rooster design. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example from an eighty-year private collection, purchased at auction by the consignor circa 1970 for $15,000. Glaze flakes to interior. A few rim chips. Diameter 12".
