Crocker Farm indicated the esteem to which they held this five-gallon stoneware crock by making it the first lot of the day. Made by W.H. Farrar in Geddes, N.Y., circa 1850, the 14-inch-tall crock was purchased by New York stoneware collector Adam Weitsman for $204,000 ($25/40,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
SPARKS, MD — All but one of the 478 lots offered by Crocker Farm in its November 5-14 Fall auction found new homes, and Mark Zipp shared the firm’s total for the sale was $1,208,310. “That’s a strong number; we only take things we think will sell and want everything to be available to the public at a fair price. We had great participation and many new bidders we hadn’t known before, though not for any of the sale’s top lots.”
The numbers, however, are just part of the story: several regional records were set, as well as a top-15 overall price realized for any piece of American stoneware sold at auction anywhere.
“There have been only about a dozen pieces that have sold for more than $200,000 and we’re very excited to add the W.H. Farrar cat-decorated crock to that list,” Zipp said. He noted it was purchased by advanced collector Adam Weitsman, who has been, for a long time, acquiring pieces to eventually donate to the New York State Museum in Albany. Zipp was additionally pleased to share the news that Weitsman plans to build a new stoneware wing for the museum.
The crock in question was well worth the sale-topping $204,000 final price: the catalog described it as having “the finest known depiction of a house cat in Nineteenth Century American stoneware,” with “intense visual appeal created through multiple decorative techniques, bold color and an imposing size.”
Selling for $120,000 and a new world auction record for Western Pennsylvania stoneware was this floral-decorated pedestal water cooler, made in Beaver, Penn., by James Hamilton for William H. Powers. It will be returning to Pennsylvania ($30/50,000).
The Zipps have previously reported strong prices for Western Pennsylvania-made stoneware, so they were very excited by the $120,000 achieved for a pedestal water cooler, made for Beaver, Penn., innkeeper William H. Powers by local potter, James Hamilton. “It’s the best-known intact piece of Hamilton’s work from Beaver,” Zipp said, adding it was a new discovery from the Midwestern US. “It sold to a Pennsylvania collector, doubling the previous record we set in 2008 for Western Pennsylvania stoneware. That market is really hot, and it’s an incredibly high number that will be hard to beat.”
Crocker Farm’s auction set two other regional records, for pieces made in Columbia, S.C., and Wilkes County, N.C. Earning $19,200 and selling to a South Carolina buyer was a circa 1860 8-gallon stoneware merchant jar attributed to the Landrum Brick and Pottery described in the catalog as “the only example of Columbia-made slip-inscribed stoneware that we are aware of.”
A stoneware pitcher made by Cicero C. Ballard in Hays, Wilkes County, N.C., crossed the block a few lots later and was topped off at $16,800 by a North Carolina buyer. Measuring just 6-3/9 inches tall, and incised with the name of its owner, “Sarah Owens/1901,” who was, per the 1900 Federal Census quoted in the catalog, a neighbor of Ballard. The result multiplied the high estimate by nearly seven-fold to be the new world auction record for the county.
“We were very happy with the price,” Mark Zipp said of the $48,000 reached for this 10¾-inch Pennsylvania German redware plate that sold to folk art collectors in New York City ($35/50,000).
A folk art collecting couple in New York City won, for $48,000, a rare sgraffito-decorated redware plate attributed to John Monday, working in Haycock Township, Bucks County, Penn. The piece had an extensive exhibition and publication history and its provenance included folk art collector Ralph O. Esmerian and the 2014 auction of his collection that Sotheby’s handled.
Crocker Farm’s catalogs are an exercise in connoisseurship, and the auctioneers make every effort to educate potential bidders on what is special about particular pieces, making it easy to see that the Zipps are passionate about their specialty.
“We talk about what makes a piece of stoneware great: decoration comes first, and rarity of size is so important.” To underscore this, Zipp pointed to a 10-gallon stoneware presentation cooler with extravagant cornucopia design, made in Atwater, Ohio, by Gurdon B. Purdy, circa 1860. “It had wonderful decoration that was probably done by a Rochester, N.Y., decorator who traveled west.” Like many of the other higher-selling pieces, it was going back to the state it was made, to a collector in Ohio who paid $45,000 for it.
A stoneware bowl with both alkaline and iron slip decoration, made in Edgefield District, S.C., during the short-lived partnership between the Reverend John Trapp and Thomas Chandler that had been in a collection in South Carolina for 50 years will be returning to the state. Several featured recommended its distinction in the catalog as “the finest example of stoneware bearing a Chandler maker’s mark that we have ever offered”: an exceptional form of a flaring bowl with flattened rim and arched tab handles, a dramatic interior decoration centering a stylized flower blossom and the rare stamp. A South Carolina bidder pushed it to $32,400.
The finest example of a marked Thomas Chandler piece that Crocker Farm has ever sold, this circa 1848-50 bowl, measuring 13⅞ inches in diameter, realized $32,400 ($15/30,000).
Even casual readers will probably be familiar with the story of enslaved Black potter, David Drake, who was working in Edgefield Center, S.C., in the mid Nineteenth Century and who is distinguished by the poems or name he often inscribed his pieces with, an astonishing phenomenon considering it was illegal at the time for most Black individuals to be able to read and write. The sale featured eight lots attributed to Drake or potteries he is known to have worked in, realizing prices from $1,200 for a 5-gallon Pottersville jar possibly by Drake, to $24,000 for a 2-gallon jug dated “1822” that had a double-collared spout and also came from the same five-year South Carolina collection. It was acquired by Rob Hunter to be used as a study piece.
Another enslaved Black man, known only as “Harry,” who was working at the Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory in the Edgefield District in the 1830s has been a relatively recent discovery, first identified by Corbett Toussaint in “Edgefield District Stoneware: The Potter’s Legacy,” which was published in the 2021-22 issue of the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts. A 5-gallon alkaline glazed stoneware jar, dated “aug 3d 1836” attributed to Harry is one of just three pieces known, and it sold for $27,600 to a South Carolina buyer.
This Rockingham glazed Anna Pottery pig bottle found a new home for $15,600 ($2/3,000).
Anna Pottery pig-form flasks have been perennial favorites among stoneware and folk art collectors, and there were four in the sale, ranging in price from $3,240 for a repaired Albany-slip glazed example, to $15,600 for one with unusual Rockingham glaze that was one of just three Crocker Farm has ever offered. It was followed at $13,200 by an Albany-slip glazed flask that was featured some unusual inscriptions: “Centralia has struck coal and She is hapy[sic] Nov 1874,” “Jonesboro has gone Democratic and is Jubilent” and “Anna Jug City & Southern Asylum.”
Crocker Farm will sell part two of the Carole Wahler collection January 21-30; the date of their spring sale has not yet been announced.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 410-472-2016 or www.crockerfarm.com.
