Exceptional IRELAND & DUEY, Mount Crawford, VA Stoneware Pitcher w/ Elaborate Decoration

Summer 2021 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 88

Price Realized: $1,680.00

($1,400 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.

Summer 2021 Auction Catalog

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Exceptional Two-Gallon Stoneware Pitcher with Elaborate Cobalt Floral Decoration, Stamped "IRELAND / & / DUEY / MT. CRAWFORD / VA," circa 1865-1870, ovoid pitcher with flared base and elaborate tooling to rim and body, decorated around the collar and body with a draped chain link and hanging flower design related to classical drape-and-tassel motifs used on early Northeastern stoneware. Collar decorated around the cobalt striping. Midsection of pitcher decorated with a graduated swag-and-hanging-flower motif. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Impressed at shoulder with the exceedingly rare maker's mark, "IRELAND / & / DUEY / MT. CRAWFORD / VA." The typical, but also rare, maker's mark from this pottery reads, "IRELAND, DUEY, & SHINNICK, MT. CRAWFORD / VA.," incorporating the Alexandria-and-Strasburg, Virginia-influenced potter, James Shinnick, into the partnership. While the mark excludes Shinnick's name, the cobalt brushwork is unquestionably in his hand, exhibiting the Milburn-style design elements taken from Alexandria to Strasburg and ultimately to Mt. Crawford. This pitcher, among the finest and most elaborately-decorated examples of Mt. Crawford stoneware known, is also one of a very few signed examples of the form known from this Rockingham County stoneware operation. Provenance: Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, March 23, 2007, Collection of Dorothy "Dolly" & Henry "Mac" McKenney, Mint Spring, VA, lot 108. Exhibited: "Valley Collects- Shenandoah Stoneware," Woodrow Wilson Birthplace, Oct. 7, 1995- Jan. 7, 1996; "'A Great Deal of Stone and Earther Ware'- The Rockingham County, Virginia School of Folk Pottery,' Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, Sept. 7- Dec. 30, 2004. Literature: Illustrated in Evans and Suter. "A Great Deal of Stone and Earthen Ware": The Rockingham County, Virginia School of Folk Pottery. Dayton, Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 2004, p. 24. Fully-restored handle, including a crack running along one side of the restored handle. Some restoration to right side of rim. Tight cracks to underside, one continuing 2 3/4" up right side of pitcher. A narrow flake to interior base. Large chips around base. Some in-the-firing crazing to base area. H 13 1/4".