Kemple, Ringoes, New Jersey Stoneware Jar w/ Pomegranate Decoration, c1746-1795

October 17, 2015 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 243

Price Realized: $1,725.00

($1,500 hammer, plus 15% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 9 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.

October 17, 2015 Auction Catalog

◀︎ Back to Catalog

▶ Login

Extremely Rare and Important Two-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Cobalt Pomegranate Decoration, attributed to the Kemple Pottery, Ringoes, New Jersey, circa 1746-1795, highly-ovoid jar with ribbed, vertical loop handles, tooled banding at shoulder and base, and semi-rounded rim, decorated on the front and reverse with a distinctive slip-trailed design featuring a stem with watchspring-style base bearing two pomegranate fruits. Lower handle terminals feature large watchspring motifs emanating from the lower handle terminals. Additional cobalt daubs accent the jar's upper and lower handle terminals. Cobalt banding, an embellishment characteristic of Kemple family products, appears within tooled demarcations below the rim and at the base. This jar is significant among the few Kemple jars we have sold in that it is the first we have offered featuring early American watchspring motifs along with the Kemples' classic pomegranate designs on the same piece. Few intact examples from this site, one of America's earliest cobalt-decorated stoneware operations, are known. A 3 1/2" in-the-firing contact mark near base, relatively common among pieces of this age and origin. A thin 6 3/4" crack on side of jar, continuing 2 3/4" onto underside. A small base chip. A 1 1/4" in-the-firing chip on top of rim. H 11 1/2".