BIO

Crocker Farm, Inc. is a family business, owned and operated by Anthony and Barbara Zipp and their three sons, Brandt, Luke, and Mark. Anthony and Barbara began collecting and studying American stoneware in 1977, and began selling it in 1983. They have handled thousands and thousands of pieces of antique American stoneware and redware since that time.

Brandt, Luke, and Mark Zipp all have B.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, where they each graduated with multiple honors and were inducted into the nation's premiere scholastic honors society, Phi Beta Kappa. All three brothers grew up handling numerous pieces of American stoneware and redware from a very young age, and in this way their knowledge in the field has been said to be unmatched.

We have spent hundreds of hours conducting original research on American stoneware and redware potters in original, period sources, such as census records, city directories and newspapers. New information brought to light through our research includes ground-breaking revelations on New York City stoneware; Baltimore, MD stoneware and redware; the long-sought origin of "H. Myers" stoneware; important findings on the history of the prolific Remmey family of American potters (of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore); significant contributions to the study of Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC stoneware; new findings in the areas of Shenandoah Valley pottery, Midwestern stoneware, and many more. In March 2010, Brandt revealed that Thomas Commeraw, the famous Manhattan potter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was actually a free African American, and his book on Commeraw's remarkable life, Commeraw's Stoneware: The Life and Work of the First African-American Pottery Owner, was released in September 2022 to widespread acclaim. These are just a few of the important contributions we have made to the field of American utilitarian ceramics.

Our auctions have seen some of the highest prices ever paid for American stoneware and redware. In addition to numerous outstanding highlights, the David Drake jar in our Summer 2021 auction sold for $1.56 Million: the World Auction Record for American pottery! That auction was also the highest-grossing stoneware auction of all time, taking in over $3.1 Million.

World auction records held by us include:

$1.56 Million. The World Auction Record for American Pottery! (Summer 2021 auction).
(This also includes the World Auction Records for David Drake pottery and South Carolina / Southern stoneware.)

$600,000. World Auction Record for Anna Pottery and Illinois Stoneware (Summer 2021 auction).

$483,000. World Auction Record for American Salt-Glazed Stoneware (October 2015 auction).
(This also includes the World Auction Records for Baltimore / Maryland pottery.)

$480,000. World Auction Record for New York Stoneware (Spring 2020 auction).

$264,000. World Auction Record for New York City Stoneware (Fall 2022 auction).

$252,000. World Auction Record for New Jersey Stoneware (Fall 2020 auction).

$204,000. World Auction Record for Virginia Stoneware (Spring 2023 auction).

$180,000. World Auction Record for Massachusetts Stoneware (Spring 2021 auction).

$177,000. World Auction Record for Ohio Stoneware and an American Face Vessel (July 2019 auction).

$144,000. World Auction Record for Pennsylvania Stoneware (Spring 2022 auction).

$144,000. World Auction Record for an American Face Jug (Spring 2023 auction).

$143,750. World Auction Record for Kentucky Stoneware (July 2016 auction).

$141,600. World Auction Record for Anna Pottery Snake Jug (November 2018 auction).

$132,000. World Auction Record for Alamance County, NC Redware (Fall 2023 auction).

$120,000. World Auction Record for Thomas Commeraw Stoneware (Summer 2023 auction).

$115,000. World Auction Record for Shenandoah Valley Pottery (by Lot) (July 2013 auction).

$108,000. World Auction Record for Philadelphia Stoneware (Fall 2023 auction).

$108,000. World Auction Record for Rochester, NY Stoneware (Fall 2023 auction).

$103,500. World Auction Record for Albany, NY Stoneware (March 2009 auction).

$97,750. World Auction Record for Cowden & Wilcox (Harrisburg) Stoneware (October 2014 auction).

$96,000. World Auction Record for Norton Family / Vermont Stoneware (Summer 2022 auction).

$78,000. World Auction Record for an American Pottery Flowerpot (Spring 2022 auction).

$65,500. World Auction Record for Western Pennsylvania Stoneware (July 2008 auction).

$63,250. World Auction Record for Bell Family (Shenandoah Valley) Pottery (March 2012 auction).

$59,000. World Auction Record for North Carolina Stoneware (July 2017 auction).

$48,000. World Auction Record for Meaders Family Pottery (Fall 2023 auction).

$41,300. World Auction Record for 19th Century North Carolina Stoneware (November 2018 auction).

$39,000. World Auction Record for Alexandria, VA Stoneware (Spring 2020 auction).

$37,950. World Auction Record for Texarkana Pottery (March 2016 auction).

$36,000. World Auction Record for Ohio Redware (Fall 2020 auction).

$36,000. World Auction Record for Georgia Stoneware (Summer 2022 auction).

$36,000. World Auction Record for Missouri Stoneware (Fall 2021 auction).

$35,650. World Auction Record for an Anna Pottery Pig Bottle (March 2013 auction).

$32,400. World Auction Record for District of Columbia Stoneware (Summer 2023 auction).

You might have noticed that we offer a wide variety of American stoneware and redware, ranging from New England and New York, to Virginia and the Southern U.S. states, to the potteries of America's Midwest. This always results in an exciting auction environment for all involved with high participation from all areas of American stoneware and redware collecting. Our high-quality, full-color auction catalogs, praised as the best the field has to offer, are essentially high-quality research texts and help to educate the collecting base on American utilitarian ceramics in general.

In August 2010, we acquired the historically and architecturally important Gorsuch Barn (1841) in Sparks, Maryland, giving American stoneware and redware a first-class, state-of-the-art auction home.

Always looking to further scholarship in this critical American handicraft, some of our notable publications and lectures include:

"Henry Remmey & Son, Late of New York: A Rediscovery of a Master Potter's Lost Years" by Luke Zipp, Available in Ceramics in America 2004.

"James Miller: Lost Potter of Alexandria, Virginia" by Brandt Zipp and Mark Zipp, Available in Ceramics in America 2004.

"Baltimore Stoneware" by Luke Zipp, Available in Antiques and Fine Art Magazine, Summer 2006.

"Washington, D.C. Stoneware" by Brandt Zipp, Available in Antiques and Fine Art Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2010.

Baltimore Stoneware: Its History and Uses, by Luke Zipp, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, 2011.

Manhattan Stoneware: 1795-1820, by Brandt and Mark Zipp, Gunn Historical Museum, Washington, CT, 2012.

Inferior to None: The Remmeys, First Family of American Stoneware, by Brandt, Mark and Luke Zipp, Crocker Farm / Gorsuch Barn, Sparks, MD, 2013.

Excellent Ware: The Harrisburg Stoneware Potters and Their Contemporaries, by Luke and Brandt Zipp, Historical Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, PA, 2013.

An African-American Potter in Federal New York, by Brandt Zipp, "Dish Camp" / Ceramics Symposium at Historic Eastfield Village, East Nassau, NY, 2013.

"Stone Ware, at South River Bridge": The Stoneware Potters of Old Bridge, New Jersey, and Related Wares, by Brandt Zipp, "Dish Camp" / Ceramics Symposium at Historic Eastfield Village, East Nassau, NY, 2016.

Remmeys, Morgans, and Parrs: Differentiating the Style and Influence of Baltimore Stoneware's Founding Families, by Luke Zipp, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, NC, 2016.

A Century of Stoneware on the Island of Manhattan, by Brandt Zipp, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, 2017.

Imitation and Innovation: Understanding Savannah River Valley Pottery within the Context of Other Antebellum Southern Stoneware Styles, by Luke Zipp, Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts (Georgia Museum of Art), Classic Center, Athens, GA, 2018.

Thomas W. Commeraw: Free African-American Stoneware Potter of Federal New York, by Brandt Zipp, American Ceramic Circle Symposium, Old Salem / Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, NC, 2019.

Commeraw's Stoneware: The Life and Work of the First African-American Pottery Owner, by A. Brandt Zipp, published September 2022.

Margaret Parr: Reclaiming a Baltimore Pottery Owner's Overlooked Legacy, by Luke Zipp, Fire + Clay Ceramics Forum, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (in collaboration w/ Colonial Williamsburg), Winston-Salem, NC, 2023.

The Life & Legacy of Thomas W. Commeraw with Brandt Zipp, Online Lecture presented by Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, 2023. (Free video link.)

Thomas W. Commeraw: Free Black Abolitionist Potter of Federal New York, by Brandt Zipp, From the Ground Up: Ceramics in Context, Colonial Williamsburg (in collaboration w/ MESDA), Williamsburg, VA, 2024. (Forthcoming.)