Unusual Alliance, Ohio Stoneware Flowerpot w/ Elaborate Impressed Decoration

Spring 2025 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 16

Price Realized: $2,520.00

($2,100 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.

Spring 2025 Auction Catalog

◀︎ Back to Catalog

▶ Login

Rare Stoneware Flowerpot with Elaborate Impressed Decoration, Alliance, OH origin, probably O.H. Heusted, circa 1875, large, wheel-thrown flowerpot with flaring mouth and tall rim with molding above a series of raised bands. Body decorated with cross, inverted drape, and heart-shaped motifs. Cross motifs to rim. Cobalt highlights to impressed designs. Original drain hole in base. This work was made by the same maker as a presentation harvest jug, inscribed "ALX. REITER. ALLIANCE. OHIO," sold in Crocker Farm, Inc.'s March 31, 2023 auction, lot 267. Alexander Reiter appears in the 1870 federal census as a prosperous jeweler living in Alliance. Also listed nearby is Oren J. Heusted (born in New York about 1822), recorded as the superintendent of a pottery. It is unclear who actually owned the stoneware shop at this time, but by the late 1870's, "Heusted & Co." appear as proprietors of the "Alliance Stone-Ware Manufactory." (See Treichler, More History of Ohio Stoneware, pg. 15 for a billhead noting this.) This flowerpot is the first by this maker that we have seen. A few small chips to molding below rim. A 1 5/8" in-the-firing chip to shoulder. Minor in-the-firing crazing to rim area. A minor base chip and some typical residue from use at base and interior shoulder. H 7 1/4" ; Diam. 11 1/2".