A Southern collector paid $132,000 for this 10-1/8-inch-tall Alamance County, N.C., redware covered sugar jar, late Eighteenth Century, that retained its original domed cover and had descended in a North Carolina family. The result was not only the top price of the sale but it set a new world record for Alamance County pottery ($20/40,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Crocker Farm

SPARKS, MD. — Nearly 550 lots of stoneware and redware were featured in Crocker Farm’s Fall 2023 auction, which was online from October 31 to November 10, with final bidding taking place on November 11. With prices ranging from as little as $270 to the top price of $132,000, all lots sold, and the auction achieved a total of $1,305,600, according to Mark Zipp.

An Alamance County, N.C., redware covered sugar jar earned the coveted top result and sold to a Southern collector for more than three times its high estimate. The result was a new world auction record for the form, outpacing the $59,000 achieved in 2017 by an example that lacked its lid. Sweetening interest in the jar was the striking multicolored slip decoration, the presence of its original lid and it being fresh to the market.

Frederick Stetzenmeyer was working in Rochester, N.Y., in the mid-Nineteenth Century and his works exemplify the production of that area but examples featuring animals in cobalt decoration are extremely rare. So, it was not surprising that a 5-gallon stoneware crock with an elaborate deer that was one of the most highly anticipated pieces — and the first lot of the sale — exceeded expectations and brought $108,000. According to the catalog, it is believed to be the only example of Stetzenmeyer’s stoneware to feature a deer and was described as “arguably the best example of Stetzenmeyer stoneware known, as well as one of the definitive examples of deer decoration known in all of American stoneware.” An advanced collector prevailed against competitors.

This 3-gallon stoneware jug stamped “F. Stetzenmeyer & Co / Rochester, N.Y.” was made circa 1855 and stood 16 inches tall. Rare and desirable elements include the fox and sunflower cobalt decoration. An advanced New York City folk art collector paid $57,000 for it ($25/40,000).

The sale also featured a Stetzenmeyer stoneware jug with elaborate fox decoration. One of few related examples, it sold to an advanced folk art collector in New York City for $57,000.

A $108,000 result was also achieved by a monumental 20-gallon cobalt decorated water cooler by the Remmey Family of Philadelphia. Dated 1828 and standing 33 inches tall, the piece — which is considered a masterwork of the pottery — was noteworthy for its lavish decoration and its size; it is the largest documented Remmey family example as well as one of the tallest examples of American cobalt-decorated stoneware known. It sold to advanced collector Adam Weitsman.

Zipp’s brother Brandt’s scholarship on the life and production of Thomas Commeraw, who is one of the most prominent African American craftsman working in Colonial America. According to Zipp, two collectors went head-to-head for a circa 1797 3-gallon stoneware jar with incised cobalt floral decorations and stamped “Corlears Hook/N.York,” Recently discovered in a Midwest collection, it found a new home with one of the two collectors, for $72,000.

David Drake, the enslaved potter working in South Carolina’s Edgefield District in the mid-Nineteenth Century, is another African American craftsman whose works have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship, museum exhibitions and high-selling auction prices. A 6-gallon alkaline glazed stoneware jar signed and dated “Decr. 4 1856 / Dave” that had recently been discovered in a family collection had a few condition issues but sold to a collector of South Carolina pottery for $48,000.

“That’s a record for Meaders family pottery and it’s great to see Twentieth Century pottery competing in value with Nineteenth Century pottery,” said Mark Zipp. He was referring to this slip-glazed stoneware face jug made circa 1958-59 and attributed to Arie Meaders of Cleveland, Ga. A Pennsylvania collector took it to $48,000 ($10/15,000).

Another record-setting price of $48,000 was achieved by a face jug made in the mid-Twentieth Century by Arie Meaders, the wife of Cheever Meaders and mother of celebrated potter Lanier Meaders. Cataloged as one of approximately 25 face jugs made by her, it had been owned by a friend of the artist as well as Carl and Marian Mullis. Zipp confirmed it was purchased by a collector in Pennsylvania.

An exceptional redware loaf dish made in Philadelphia in the late Eighteenth Century exhibited lavish yellow slip decoration with green copper highlights. Though many pieces of similarly decorated examples have been excavated from Eighteenth Centuries Philadelphia privies, intact examples are rare and suggest they were found above ground. Zipp noted it was the subject of fierce competition between two private collectors; one prevailed to take it to $36,000, more than double its high estimate.

The sculpted and applied features of a redware face flask appear to represent a Native American; though the maker was unknown, it is thought to have been made in the Northeastern US in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. A Southern collector bought it for $32,400. Zipp noted it relates to an example at the Fenimore Art Museum that is in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Few face flasks are known and this recently surfaced redware example, by an unknown maker but attributed to the Northeastern United States, appears to denote a Native American. A Southern collector paid $32,400 for it ($6,000-10,000).

The Norton family of potters, working in Bennington, Vt., are arguably among the best known American stoneware potters and there is no shortage of examples from various family members. Crocker Farm’s sale offered two rare examples: a 2-gallon stoneware jar stamped “J&E Norton / Bennington Vt,” circa 1855, and a 2-gallon stoneware jar stamped “E & LP Norton/Bennington, Vt,” circa 1860. A peacock perched on a branch in cobalt decoration is a rarely seen decorative motif and helped drive the J&E Norton jug to $25,200, which it realized from a Pennsylvania collector. Of almost equal rarity was the pecking chicken decorative motif of one by E&LP Norton that a stoneware collector paid $14,400 for.

Collectors seek out early marks and the sale had several vessels that checked that box. Among those that brought the higher prices of the sale were a Gurdon Robins & Co salt-glazed stoneware 3-gallon jug with iron oxide wash that was stamped “Gurdon Robins / & Co. / Fayetteville, NC.” Noted as being the earliest North Carolina stoneware mark, the jug will be returning to the state, to a resident collector who paid $20,400. One of the earliest and rarely seen marks of a Manhattan potter — “C. Crolius / Bayard Street / New-York” — was present on a circa 1800 narrow-bodied cylindrical jar that a New York City collector topped off at $13,200.

Though it may not have been the earliest mark made by Henry, Michael and Theophilus Miller in Newport, Penn., the “HM&T Miller” mark on a 5-gallon double handled stoneware jug with cobalt floral decoration is the only example Crocker Farm has ever handled. It rose to $11,400, nearly quadrupling its high estimate.

Crocker Farm’s next auction is scheduled to end on April 5.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, 410-472-2016, www.crockerfarm.com or info@crockerfarm.com.