Very Rare Johnson / Grand Junction, Tennessee Stoneware Churn

March 23, 2019 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 224

Price Realized: $383.50

($325 hammer, plus 18% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 5 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.

March 23, 2019 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Two-Gallon Stoneware Jar Stamped "D.T. JOHNSON / GRAND JUNCTION / TENN", TN origin, circa 1875, cylindrical jar with rounded shoulder and thick, slightly-flared rim with flange on interior for lid, the surface covered in a salt glaze. Impressed at shoulder with D.T. Johnston maker's mark above a two-gallon capacity mark. According to Smith and Rogers in their expansive Tennessee Potteries, Pots, and Potters - 1790s to 1950, David T. Johnson purchased Benjamin F. Ussery's Grand Junction stoneware manufactory in early 1874, selling it only a couple of years later. Speaking to the extreme rarity of this maker's mark, the first example of which we have seen, Smith and Rogers note that they "were shown a privately-owned, small brown-glazed stoneware jar" with this mark in the 1970's--suggesting no other surviving examples were known to them. A 1 1/8" x 1 1/4" wedged chip out of rim. Other lesser rim chips. Wear to inner rim for lid.