Rare and Fine Anna Pottery / 1887 Figural Inkwell Featuring a Frog atop a Face

Spring 2023 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 39

Price Realized: $8,400.00

($7,000 hammer, plus 20% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE:  The American ceramics market frequently changes, often dramatically. 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.

Auction Highlight:  Spring 2023 Auction | Anna Pottery

Spring 2023 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Cobalt-Decorated Stoneware Face Inkwell with Applied Frog, Inscribed "Anna Pottery / 1887," Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna, IL, 1887, hand-modeled in the form of a boy's head with closed eyes, protruding ears, and open mouth bearing a small row of upper teeth, surmounted by a hand-modeled figure of a frog. Incised details and cobalt highlights throughout. Underside incised with the cobalt-highlighted signature, "Anna Pottery / 1887." Few Anna face inkwells are known; when found, they portray the face as two-dimensionally incised onto a mound or stylistically modeled in the form of a disc. This work instead depicts the face as fully molded, conveying anatomical realism, and is the only example of its kind that we have seen. As with other Anna works, a sense of excitement or urgency is created as the boy opens his mouth to yell, frightened by the frog's landing on his head. Provenance: Recently surfaced in the Pacific Northwest. Excellent, essentially as-made condition, the reverse with an in-the-firing kiln scar and small amount of kiln residue. L 2 7/8" ; H 2 3/4".




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