American Stoneware Exceeds $400,000 at Maryland Sale

BOONSBORO, MD.

:Crocker Farm's second live auction of American stoneware and redware exceeded the company's expectations.

Operated by the Zipp family - Anthony, Barbara and their sons, Brandt, Luke and Mark - Crocker Farm has sold about $800,000 worth of American pottery in a four-month period.

"Between the first sale [in July] and the second sale, we only had about two months' time to put our second auction together," said Anthony Zipp. "We didn't know what to expect, but we were all surprised with the quality of the consignments we received in such a short amount of time."

A full color catalog was produced. The auction was conducted at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center, but absentee and phone bidders participated from all over the country.

Most areas of American utilitarian pottery production were represented in the sale, with high-end pieces coming from New England to the South.

The top lot, an elaborate stoneware water cooler from Cortland, N.Y., with an incised fish design, sold for $27,500. Close behind was a pair of presentation pieces made for Philadelphia blacksmith John Spuck - one a stoneware pitcher made at the Remmey pottery in Philadelphia, the other an ironstone shaving mug with a detailed blacksmith's shop scene - that brought $23,650.

A New England stoneware crock with a brilliantly decorated house scene brought $16,500, as did a huge, 35- to 40-gallon Baltimore stoneware jar with an interesting provenance. It was discovered at Andalusia, the Bucks County, Penn., estate of Nicholas Biddle, prominent American banker and avid horticulturist. Biddle entertained many Nineteenth Century notables on his estate, including John Quincy Adams and Marquis de Lafayette.

"That is possibly the largest piece of salt glazed stoneware we've ever seen," commented Zipp. "When they excavated the greenhouses on the Biddle property, they found this jar buried up to the rim. The handles were missing, but it was in otherwise good condition. They also discovered a matching piece that was smashed into several pieces, so they were able to mold replacement handles for this piece from the other example."

Several fine examples of Shenandoah Valley pottery made their appearance in the auction, and sold strongly. A redware bird figure on plinth, impressed multiple times with the maker's mark of Winchester, Va., potter Anthony Baecher, realized $19,800; another Baecher example, a redware birdhouse that descended in the potter's family, brought $4,400. A redware cat figure attributed to Strasburg, Va., potter Solomon Bell sold for $12,100, and a one-gallon stoneware jar with the rare, early mark of Solomon's brother, Samuel, brought $7,700; a multiglazed pitcher signed with Samuel Bell's later mark realized $4,400.

Two stoneware pitchers by rare Strasburg makers each sold for $6,600. A small-sized John Bell (Waynesboro, Penn.) jug with an exceptional glaze and maker's mark impressed on the handle realized $6,325.

A miniature decorated stoneware churn with an accompanying miniature wooden dasher, made as a salesman's sample or a child's toy, brought $14,300, and other miniatures sold strongly, as well. A salesman's sample jug from New York or New England sold for $5,720. A miniature "wax sealer" canning jar from Western Pennsylvania realized $4,950. A small, pint-sized jar with a rare Elizabethtown, N.J., maker's mark commanded $4,620, and a miniature Baltimore spittoon brought $3,630.

Other pieces of note include a Remmey, Philadelphia, stoneware bank that realized $8,690, a rare Philadelphia chicken waterer that sold for $4,840, an early New Jersey jar with a sun face design that realized $3,850 and an Alexandria, Va., churn that brought $3,410.

"This was a more well-rounded sale than our first," said Zipp. "In our first auction, we had a few pieces, like the Baltimore water cooler that sold for more than $70,000, that were very high-end. But we didn't have nearly as many items in the middle to high end, as we did this time."

The sale grossed more than $400,000.

Prices reported include ten percent buyer's premium.