Lot #: 83
Price Realized: $2,400.00
($2,000 hammer, plus 20% buyer's premium)
PLEASE NOTE: This result is 3 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.
Rare and Important Salt-Glazed Stoneware Oyster Jar, Stamped "G.W. AND. Co No 202 / WARTERSTREET / N.YORK," Thomas Commeraw, Manhattan, NY, late 18th or early 19th century, small-sized, cylindrical jar with narrow, recessed mouth, impressed in large letters across the front with advertising for local African-American oysterman, George White. White first appears as an oysterman in an 1805 city directory and continues to be listed with that trade all the way until 1818 (though these jars clearly date to Daniel Johnson's timeframe; see previous description). He was at the very least selling oysters as part of his fruit-selling trade as early as 1797. (Note the misspelling "WARTER" here, seen on all of White's known jars.) Commeraw's oyster jars are believed to be the earliest examples of American advertising stoneware, a genre that would proliferate throughout the United States over the course of the 19th century. They further represent the only known examples of stoneware made at an African-American-owned pottery for African-American business owners. A 1" in-the-firing chip (kiln furniture scar) to rim and minor base chips. H 5 1/8".
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