Exceptional Three-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Incised Ship Decoration, NJ origin, circa 1820-1840, ovoid jar with heavily-tooled shoulder and ribbed lug handles, further embellished along the collar and shoulder with two coggled columnar motifs. Front decorated with a large incised and cobalt-highlighted design of a sailing ship. Artistic and detailed execution of the decoration, including two flags flanking a stripe-and-star-spangled signal flag, three windows on the bow, profuse curvilinear incising to the ship's eleven sails, and incised waves below. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Among the finest renderings of a ship in American stoneware that we have ever offered, second only to that found on the iconic Abial Price ship cooler, which sold as lot 1 in Crocker Farm's December 4, 2020 auction and set a world auction record for New Jersey stoneware. The form, color, and coggled decoration on this jar indicate it, like the cooler, was also made in New Jersey. Provenance: Collection of Lewis Fenley "Dusty" Parker. A small in-the-firing contact mark to front. A thin 4 3/4" crack from rim to right of ship. A tight crack across underside, continuing 7 1/2" up front. A 7 1/2" crack from rim on reverse. H 12 3/4".
