Exceedingly Rare and Important Albany-Slip-Glazed Stoneware Face Jug, Signed "CM," attributed to Arie Meaders, Cleveland, GA, circa 1958-1959, wide-bodied, wheel-thrown jug with hand-modeled and applied clay face featuring balled clay eyes placed within elongated lids, broad nose with carved nostrils, curved ears, frowning mouth with incised mustache, and subtle, rounded chin. Heavily-incised hair to top of head and reverse. Surface covered in a brown Albany slip glaze. One of approximately twenty-five face jugs made by leading female folk ceramicist, Arie Meaders, the mother of Lanier Meaders. Lanier identified the brief period his mother produced these jugs by the "pure Albany slip glaze" used as between 1958 and 1959. The underside of this example is signed with a conjoined "CM," indicating it was made at the pottery of Arie's husband, Cheever Meaders. Among the most significant Meaders family products known. Exhibited: American Folk Pottery: Art and Tradition, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, June 14, 2020 to December 31, 2022. Provenance: Carl and Marian Mullis Collection; Ex-Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society, 2010; Previously purchased from Mrs. Huey, a friend of Arie Meaders. Excellent, essentially as-made condition with some in-the-firing crawling to glaze. H 6 3/4" ; Diam. (at base) 5 1/4".
