Exceedingly Rare and Important Two-Gallon Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware Dated Jug, Inscribed "1822" and Stamped "E," Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory, probably David Drake, Edgefield District, SC, 1822, highly-ovoid jug with double-collared spout, featuring the large incised date, "1822," incised at the shoulder, the surface covered in a light-olive alkaline glaze with high gloss. Shoulder incised with a single slash mark. Base impressed with rare serifed "E" stamp. A heavy area of opaque glaze at the upper handle terminals suggests a piece of glass may have been placed there prior to firing. According to potter, Kim Ellington, such treatments, while considered decorative, may have served as a sort of early firing cone to determine when the kiln had reached temperature by the melting of the glass. This work is distinguished as one of the very earliest examples of dated Edgefield stoneware known. Among these are a select group of pieces made at Pottersville dated between 1820 and 1822. A highly important bottle, signed and dated "A. Landrum / July 20th 1820," made by Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory founder, Abner Landrum, is currently on display at the William C. and Susan S. Mariner Gallery at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. A famous jug, closely related in form to the jug in this auction, bears the date, "1821," and is also on display at the Mariner Gallery. The 1821 jug is illustrated in Todd's Carolina Clay on the second page of the book's color plate insert. Todd describes that jug thusly: "The profile of this unsigned vessel is almost identical to that of a signed Dave jug of 1853, which suggests that Dave made both of them. If so, this jug is his earliest known work, turned at Pottersville when he was about twenty years old" (Todd, color plate insert). Two documented Pottersville jars date to this time period as well; an ovoid jar with numerous impressed circles, dated 1821, and a second jar with seven B stamps, dated "July the 30th 1822," both of which are illustrated in Hunter and Heubach, "Visualizing the Stoneware Potteries of William Rogers of Yorktown and Abner Landrum of Pottersville," Ceramics in America 2019, figs. 15 and 16. As one of the earliest dated Edgefield stoneware pieces known and possibly one of the earliest pieces of inscribed David Drake stoneware in existence, the importance of this lot is difficult to overstate. Pairing with its extremely rare and early date are fine craftsmanship, glazing, and condition to the vessel. Literature: For a related 1821 jug, see Todd, Carolina Clay, color insert, and Baldwin, Great and Noble Jar, p. 40, fig. 2.9. For related jars dated 1821 and July the 30th 1822, see Hunter and Heubach, "Visualizing the Stoneware Potteries of William Rogers of Yorktown and Abner Landrum of Pottersville," Ceramics in America 2019, figs. 15 and 16. Provenance: From a fifty-year SC collection. Remarkable, excellent condition with a few minor base chips, a narrow 7/8" base chip (probably in-the-firing), and some long, horizontal in-the-firing lines at base, which are glazed over. This condition is noteworthy given the age and origin of the vessel. H 13 1/2".
