A Newly Acquired 19th Century Red Earthenware Bank from Saco River Auction in Biddeford, Maine

Yesterday, I attended Saco River Auction's annual Thanksgiving weekend sale in Biddeford, Maine. They had been consigned a beautiful nineteenth-century slip decorated red earthenware bank that I hoped to purchase - and, on first sight I was impressed. When I examined the bank in-hand - I instantly felt it was a museum-quality type of an object. I wasn't sure what the bank was going to sell for, but I knew of a similar example that sold a few years ago at a James D. Julia Auction in Fairfield, Maine for well-over one-thousand-dollars (including buyer's premium). However, I felt this example would sell for less since it was not consigned to such a high-profile auction.

 Saco River Auction - Biddeford, ME

Annual Thanksgiving Day Sale

Saturday November 28, 2015

I ended up buying the bank for a ridiculously cheap price. I had a feeling this would happen since it is a holiday weekend - and, there is a lot going on in the national antiques industry yesterday and today.

What first attracted me to this object was the finial. It's beautiful with all the different decorative turnings. It reminds me of finials that are often seen on fine examples of formal furniture manufactured in urban areas, such as highboys, in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. The base is also finely executed. This is just an incredibly accomplished product. 

On the front of the bank are a person's initials decorated in slip - they were applied with a stencil similar to a small group of nineteenth-century red earthenware spice jars that are known today from a southern Maine potter. However, I feel this object was made further south in Pennsylvania during the circa 1840-1880 period. I don't have much-else to say about this object - I feel the pictures say everything - and, some - otherwise, this is a finely made object from an accomplished potter.

 19th Century Red Earthenware Bank Likely Made in Pennsylvania 

Circa 1840-1880

Stands 8 1/2" Tall

Purchased Yesterday at Saco River Auction in Biddeford, ME

Another View of the Bank

 View of the Initials Stenciled in Slip 'C F'

View of the Base

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...