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Very Rare Glazed Redware Tea Canister with Profuse Manganese Floral Decoration, Inscribed "Tea Canister / Made / September / 22d- 1846 / N.C.," attributed to Ezra White, Mercer, Mercer County, PA, 1846, wheel-thrown form with rounded spout and shoulder, fashioned with four flattened sides with canted corners, decorated on all four sides with different brushed-manganese designs of a flowering plant, two sides incorporating an urn. Shoulder decorated with brushed manganese foliate motifs. Surface covered in a clear lead glaze over a vibrant, bright-orange ground. Underside incised "Tea Canister / Made / September / 22d 1846 / N.C." A canister with matching glaze and decoration was sold in Crocker Farm's March 23, 2019 auction, lot 174, and bore a partial inscription indicating it was made on the same day as this example. Another closely-related example bearing the same date was sold at Sotheby's, Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art from the Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, January, 25, 2014, lot 512. A less elaborately-decorated pair, dated 1848, are owned by Colonial Williamsburg and include the potter's signature, "E. White," on their undersides. The "N.C." inscribed on the underside of this lot is unique among this group and likely refers to the vessel's owner. A salt-glazed stoneware keg with large incised eagle decoration, bearing the stamp "EZER WHITE," was sold in Crocker Farm's Fall 2021 auction, lot 131, indicating this potter was proficient in both redware and stoneware production. Combining an elusive form with exuberant decoration in the Pennsylvania-German tradition, this lot expands on an elite group of Western Pennsylvania redware masterworks from a highly expressive potter skilled in multiple clay mediums. Provenance: Recently discovered in a California home. Literature: For a related tea canister, see American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 135, fig. 95A. Darkened wear along canted corners and a darkened 1/2" flake to shoulder. H 7 7/8".
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