Exceptional Covered Stoneware Presentation Cake Crock with Incised and Impressed Bird Decoration, Impressed "MRS. S.A. EDDY", attributed to Somerset Potters Works, Somerset, MA, circa 1885, cylindrical crock with tooled shoulder, applied lug handles, and tooled rim with inner flange to hold its raised cover, the front decorated with an elaborate incised and cobalt-highlighted design of two birds with turned heads, flanked by leaves emanating from an impressed star-and-circle motif. Decoration includes additional, elaborate star-and-circle designs between the birds and capping the ends of the leaves. Birds are embellished with profuse impressed circles to delineating their forms and creating their eyes, along with partially-impressed half-circles forming the feather detail on the birds' bodies. Shoulder of crock impressed with the cobalt-highlighted name, "MRS S A EDDY". Interior of crock coated in Albany slip. The crock's original raised cover, which fits snugly between the rim and inner flange, features tooled circular banding, slip-trailed wavy lines, and an impressive, stepped and pointed finial, coated in cobalt slip. The underside of lid is coated in Albany slip. This cake crock ranks among the finest examples of the form that we have offered in any American ceramic medium. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, from a Midwestern private collection. Crock in excellent condition with an approximately 3" in-the-firing line descending from rim on interior, visible as a tight 1 1/2" line on exterior. Lid with chip to side of finial, wear to top of finial, and a salt drip to surface. Front H (including lid) 11" ; Diam. 11 1/8".
