Outstanding Six-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Exuberant Cobalt Flower Basket Decoration, attributed to David Parr, Sr., Baltimore, MD, circa 1830, large-sized, ovoid jar with tall, flaring collar, and tab handles, decorated on the front with a top-to-bottom, elaborate flowering plant design extending from a basket or urn. Plant includes three large stems bearing numerous leaves and flowers extending upward and diagonally to the left and right. Basket depicted with crossing cobalt stripes and scrolled handles. Reverse decorated with a similar flowering plant extending from a mound of earth. Undersides of handles decorated with a triple-stemmed flowering plant. Handle terminals decorated with cobalt highlights. Impressed with a large six-gallon capacity mark on the collar. Rare size, strong color, and phenomenal decoration, incorporating a total of forty-one flowerheads. Likely one of the most highly-decorated examples of American stoneware known and arguably the greatest documented work by the Parr family of Baltimore. Rim and base chips. T-shaped line in underside, with one part of line extending up side of jar from base 6", another part extending 4" up side of jar, and another extending 3 1/2" up side of jar. H 15".
