EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Rare Stoneware Ring Flask That Will Sell This Weekend in Poughkeepsie, New York

Friday, January 8, 2016

A Rare Stoneware Ring Flask That Will Sell This Weekend in Poughkeepsie, New York

A few days ago, I wrote about the stoneware collection that will be sold tomorrow at Hyde Park Country Auctions in Poughkeepsie, New York. I forgot to mention that there is another object that also intrigued me in this sale - and, this is also possibly my favorite form from the recently consigned private collection.

Shown below is a heavily decorated salt-glazed stoneware ring flask, which I presume is from a New York City potter. My instinct suggests that this flask was made by a Crolius family member or a Remmey family member around the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century. Both family names were instrumental in the foundation that was set in American for stoneware production before 1750. Understandably, objects tied to either family are highly prized today. However, Manhattan's stoneware industry was not only limited to these two names during this period - and, styles also overlapped. The lack of a maker's mark makes it difficult to say 'what potter' or 'what potter's business' is truly responsible.

The dotted graduated or pyramid-style cobalt decoration is what makes me believe this product was made in New York City. There was also a crossover with decorative styles that happened between New York City potters and New Jersey potters in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. This was the result of potters traveling to multiple businesses for employment and also the result of marriage. None-the-less, this is an unmarked example of stoneware that makes it difficult to properly attribute; although, I don't believe this flask was made in New Jersey. I feel it could be a rare example or a rare form of New York City stoneware from the 1800 to 1815 period.

I also suppose that an upstate New York potter could also be responsible, but this particular object appears early.

An incised vine and leaf example demonstrating a similar form, which was attributed to New York City (possibly the Crolius family) recently sold for $4,600 in 2014 at Crocker Farm in Sparks, Maryland.