Bruce and Vicki Waasdorp recently concluded their mail and phone bid American Pottery Auction, which featured the lifetime collection of the late Rev Clare Ingham of Danbury, Conn.

Top lot of the sale was a J. & E. Norton Bennington, Vt., five-gallon crock, circa 1855, with an incredible design. Standing 13 inches tall and depicting deer, house, trees and fence, as well as lots of ground cover, the large crock went out at $23,650, well above its listed minimum bid of $9,500.

Blue at the maker’s mark, the crock had some minor surface chipping to the rim interior and at the ears, along with very minor glaze wear to the interior bottom from use. There was a tight minor hairline in front of the left ear.

The second best showing in terms of price results was a three-gallon preserve jar with lid, circa 1870, by Cowden & Wilcox, Harrisburg, Penn., which made $14,300 against a minimum bid of $9,500. Decorated with a one-of-a-kind Texas longhorn cow, the rare jar was blue at the handles with an impressed name and was 121/2 inches tall.

A John Bell Waynesboro signed four-gallon ovoid crock with blue flowers and vines, circa 1874, which brought $11,550; a three-gallon butter churn by N.A. White & Son, Utica, N.Y., circa 1870, exemplifying the factory’s paddletail bird on flowering branch décor, $9,900.

Also, a J. & E. Norton Bennington, Vt., four-gallon preserve jar with reclining deer design, circa 1855, which went out at $9,350; a H.M. Whitman, Havana, N.Y., one-gallon preserve jar, circa 1860, with a well-executed folky design of a swimming fish made $7,425; and a two-gallon barrel-shaped keg by Tyler & Dillon, Albany, N.Y., circa 1825, with a hand incised and blue accented “Brandy” at the top and a design featuring a wooden row boat and oars, sold for $5,500.

Prices reported include ten percent buyer’s premium.