A New England collector consigned this exceptional six-gallon stoneware crock with rare double deer decoration, potted by J. & E. Norton in 1855, to the auction. It sold to an advanced folk art collector for $45,000 ($25/45,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

SPARKS, MD. — Crocker Farm ended a banner year on November 16, selling all but one of the lots offered, about 350 in a cataloged sale and an additional 140 online. The sale total was about $720,000, a number partner Mark Zipp said he and the family were very happy with.

Rarities attracted particular interest, including the sale’s top lot, a six-gallon stoneware crock made by J. & E. Norton around 1855. While deer were a common — even iconic — motif for the Bennington, Vt., pottery, most feature just one; the example at Crocker farm had two, a standing stag and reclining doe, all within a landscape. According to the catalog notes, the design was made by John Hilfinger (1826-1888), an itinerant German-born stoneware decorator who worked at various New York State potteries. When the size, design and its execution were weighed in the balance, the auction house dubbed it “among the finest examples of Norton family stoneware that we have ever auctioned,” with few comparable examples. An advanced folk art collector won it for its high estimate: $45,000.

A three-gallon jar, also made by J. & E. Norton in 1855, that sported a similar single standing stag as its primary decorative motif topped off at $14,400, won by a trade buyer from Ohio.

The standing deer decoration on the front of this three-gallon stoneware jar was unusually large and the condition was considered very nice. A trade buyer from Ohio topped it off at $14,400 ($5/10,000).

Another six-gallon crock also made around 1855 secured $36,000 and the auction’s second-highest result. Made in Rochester, N.Y., by F. Stetzenmeyer, it was decorated not with a deer but with a standing lion. According to catalog notes, the piece had long been admired and regarded among the most famous American lion-decorated stoneware pieces known, and had been owned by pioneer collector, John Morgan, of Pike, N.Y. Morgan acquired it in poor condition and restored it himself and Zipp said, “If this were in mint condition, it could be $150,000.” He confirmed the new owner was a major stoneware collector.

It’s not unusual for the firm to set records in each auction and this sale was no exception. Winchester Potteries, in Frederick County, Va., is well known for tall vases and an apple-form jar that Zipp said was the best piece from the pottery he’d seen — and the only example he knew of — saw competition from a Virginia bidder and a folk art collector in Pennsylvania. In the end, the folk art collector prevailed, at $18,000, more than seven times its high estimate. The result was one Zipp said set a new record for Winchester Potteries.

For the most part, Crocker Farm does not sell contemporary stoneware or redware but happily makes exceptions for those pieces made by established potters working in old traditions. Pieces made by the Meaders family meet those criteria and a face jug made collaboratively by Cheever Meaders and his son Lanier, that had rock eyes and teeth and was a significant new discovery, outperformed expectations. Originally sold at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, in 1967, it came to Crocker Farm from a DC collector and sold for $16,800 to someone Zipp described as a “major Midwest collector.”

This 8¾-inch-tall alkaline glazed stoneware face jug with rock eyes and teeth, made circa 1967 by Cheever and Lanier Meaders of Cleveland, Ga., was a recently discovered example. It brought $16,800 from a collector in the Midwest ($8/12,000).

In our previous auction reviews, Zipp has discussed the importance regionalism — in which the region of origin is highly important to bidders from the same area — has played in the stoneware market. While he and his family have seen expanded interest from bidders in parts of the country that do not have a large stoneware-making tradition, the firm continues to see many of the top pieces selling to buyers who are “bringing pieces home,” so to speak.

Such was the case with a Moravian redware turtle-form bottle with copper glaze that had been made in Salem, N.C., in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Rarity — few examples survive — was in its favor but it had a few condition issues and been on the market recently (Spring 2023); as such, it sold for $16,800 to a North Carolina collector.

It was not the only piece to find its way back to where it was made. While Anna Pottery pig-form flasks have been popular with folk art collectors around the US, an Anna Pottery collector from Illinois prevailed to win the one on offer for $13,200. The catalog noted it to be “among the finer” examples the firm has handled, noting particularly elaborate penmanship that further distinguished it.

Turtle-form bottles are one of the most coveted and elusive of all Moravian figural objects but this example had a few condition issues and was not fresh to the market. Despite having sold at Crocker Farm in Spring 2023 for $45,000, it realized $16,800 in its second offering in less than two years and is returning to North Carolina ($8/12,000).

Zipp said the use of human imagery as decoration is rare, though there are known examples made by potteries in both Morgantown, W.Va., and Uniontown, Penn. So, a six-gallon crock example from Uniontown, Penn., circa 1865, caught the eye of several bidders. After competitive bidding, it outpaced its estimate and sold for $10,800 to a buyer near Uniontown.

A one-gallon “Liberty Forever” stoneware jar, made by Warne & Letts of South Amboy, N.J., which the catalog identified as not only being the best example Crocker Farm has ever offered but also one that had exceptional provenance which included an early stoneware collector and scholar. A buyer in New Jersey won the 7-5/8-inch tall bottle for $10,200.

Two birds pecking at an elaborate grapevine gave a four-gallon stoneware jar a sense of vitality. Made in New York City circa 1860 by L. Lehman & Co., the jar flew to $9,600, more than triple its high estimate. A collector in Manhattan had the winning bid.

Returning to Pennsylvania is a Nineteenth Century two-color slip-decorated footed serving dish that was the first of its kind Crocker Farm had ever sold. According to the catalog, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a related onion planter; it more than doubled its high estimate, serving up $9,600.

This type of redware serving dish is so rare that this Pennsylvania example is the first one Crocker Farm has ever handled. A Pennsylvania collector won it for $9,600 ($2,5/4,500).

Rabbits may be known for multiplying but they are rarely found on incise-decorated American stoneware. One was spotted on a 7-3/8-inch-tall cream jar from Ohio that dated to circa 1840 and also featured a fish. That, too, is going home, to a collector in Ohio who paid $7,800.

The Zipps were happy to have many new bidders at the sale and one of them — a collector from the Northeast — had two lots on her first-ever Crocker Farm invoice: an early Nineteenth Century one-gallon stoneware jug with drape-and-tassel cobalt motif and a rare five-line stamp that read “COMMERAW’S / STONEWARE / CORLEARS / HOOK / N. YORK” ($13,200); and a late Eighteenth Century three-gallon jug decorated with two fish made by Jonathan Fenton in Boston ($10,200).

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.

Crocker Farm will sell more than 300 lots from the lifetime estate collection of Carole Wahler on January 22-31, followed in March by a various-owners sale. For information, 410-472-2016 or www.crockerfarm.com.