“We had the biggest crowd ever,” stated Tony Zipp in the days that followed his 15th American stoneware and redware pottery auction conducted October 31 at the York Fairgrounds. Zipp and family, doing business as Crocker Farm, offered more than 425 lots of pottery and associated items.
“Overall, things went real well, we are quite satisfied,” Zipp said. On top of hosting the largest crowd to have ever attended one of their auctions, the auctioneer also commented that there were more registered phone bidders than had been seen at a previous auction. “The bidders were there,” stated Zipp, “the lower to midrange pieces did super, and although there was plenty of interest in the top lots, people seemed to be bidding with caution.”
People came from long distances and there was a lot of excitement, reported Zipp. As the first lot crossed the auction block the excitement level became quite apparent with phone bidders, absentee bidders and several in the crowd poised for action. The auctions are usually front-loaded with a quality selection of early pieces of stoneware, and this sale was no exception. Termed “exceedingly rare,” a double jug, or gemel, made in New Haven, Conn., was the first of the lots to be offered. Marked with an “M” on one side and a “B” on the other, presumably for the cooking spirits Madeira and brandy, the jug was also decorated with incised pheasants on a branch with a floral sprig between them.
The auction house called the jug “one of the most important recent discoveries in American stoneware,” further relating that it had been consigned from a private collection, where it had remained since the first half of the Twentieth Century. Provenance also stated that it had descended in a New York State family until being given as a gift to the consignor, a Hanover, Penn., antiques dealer.
Estimated at $15/25,000, the rare jug was actively bid with it selling at $24,725.
The following lot, a robust open handled jar thought to have been made in Manhattan also attracted quite a bit of attention. With a nice mellow color and strong cobalt blue decoration, the jar was incised with flowers on the front and back and fish scales under each of the handles. Estimated at $2/3,000, the jar soared past estimates to sell at $4,140.
A small jar marked J. Remmey, Manhattan Wells and decorated with a crude flower on the reverse sold at $3,565, while a Commeraws handled jug brought $2,070.
A water cooler attributed to the Boynton brothers, Albany, N.Y., was incised with fish, floral decoration and the name “Doc Jon” Sherwood, Fairfield 1817.” Provenance indicated that the cooler had been made for an important figure at the Fairfield College of Physicians and Surgeons, the 11th medical school to have been established in the United Sates and the first west of the Hudson River.
The cooler was another one of three lots to share the classification assigned by the Zipps as “one of the most significant recent discoveries in American stoneware” and was said to have surfaced in Herkimer County, N.Y., some 20 years ago and had never previously been offered for sale. Estimated at $15/25,000, the cooler hammered down at $26,450.
The top lot of the day was offered a short while later as the rare William Porter presentation pitcher was offered. Decorated with an applied and blue washed eagle decoration, stars above it, a floral swag below it and a cobalt decorated spout and handle, the pitcher was exquisite. Another of the lots to be termed a significant discovery, the 12-inch tall piece was subjected to a serious bout of bidding with it selling above estimates at $27,600.
Pottery from the Kirkpatrick family, Anna, Ill., did well, with a rare snake handle jug from either the Anna pottery or Texarkana hammering down at $5,175. An Anna pottery pig flask with incised rail road decoration did well at $4,945, while another pig flask in an overall Albany slip sold for $2,645.
An early Ohio stoneware pitcher marked Henry Rambo was decorated with an incised eagle that was executed in a style similar to a fraktur. A previously undocumented potter, this is, according to the catalog, the only known example marked by the potter. Estimated at $2,5/3,500, the lot was subjected to brisk action, with it selling at $8,625.
Shenandoah Valley pottery did well with a large stoneware jug with tulip decoration marked by John Bell selling well at $7,590. A redware Turk’s head mold in a nice creamy slip colored glaze and marked twice by Solomon Bell sold for $5,175, while a redware wall pocket with applied flowers and bird, attributed to Eberly, realized $3,450.
The next American stoneware and redware auction scheduled for Crocker Farm, January 30, will be a single-owner sale featuring the collection of William Kelly Young. For information, 410-337-5090 or www.crockerfarm.com .
