Last night, I posted these pictures and this information to my Instagram account from the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, "This is why research can be so much fun! This outstanding and likely unique piece of hand formed painted nineteenth century American red earthenware with original green and gold paint in the form of an American eagle and a shield sold a few years ago in a great collection at Garth's Auctions in Columbus, Ohio. It was so unusual that it was really hard to say where it might have been made. But Robesonia, Pennsylvania antiques dealer Greg Kramer saw its folk art appeal and purchased it.
However, while in southeastern Pennsylvania this week, I finally got the chance to handle it, and it immediately struck me that it is similar in production to a large painted Civil War memorial wreath that I just posted this week to my Instagram story, which was rediscovered last month in Seattle. The wreath was manufactured by a German immigrant potter by the name of Carl Ludwig Heinrich Mehwaldt (1809-1887) working near Niagara Falls in western New York in 1865. It is one of three memorial wreaths known. Coincidentally, I have also been researching this potter's career for a few years now while working with the Das Haus Museum in Berkholz, New York, and I just finalized a research story that will be published later this summer in Antiques & Auction News. This piece has gotta be related, seeing that it's manufacture and how it was painted is so similar to the wreaths and some other known objects that Mehwaldt manufactured for the Holy Ghost Church in Bergholz between 1865-1887.
It is also my best guess that this piece may have been made around 1876, perhaps in celebration of the Centennial, or thereabouts. And it was also previously owned by noted New York City dealer, author and collector George S. McKearin (1874-1958), having been acquired by McKearin in the 1920s or 1930s. Interestingly, most of the unique production that was manufactured by Mehwaldt and hung in the Holy Ghost Church ended up with New York author and collector Ada Walker Camehl (1866-1939), who wrote about Mehwaldt for the Buffalo Historical Society and The Magazine Antiques in the 1920s. I also suspect that in some capacity she must have known McKearin since they were both major pottery collectors from New York.
Potentially, I think this could be one of the most unique and historically significant pieces of pottery to a specific region that I have ever handled. The piece also retains McKearin's old collection label on the back, and I bet before tonight the last time this piece was in Manhattan was back when McKearin owned it. I think that's really cool!
At some point, I'm going to try and track down McKearin's old notes at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York and see what he wrote down about this piece since it is number "624" on the old collection label. It may not be widely known, although, McKearin happened to have written an important book about glass and was a major collector, but he was also major collector of pottery who knew other major collectors like Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) and others. "
Note: The rediscovered wreath that I just mentioned will be published in my forthcoming article about Mehwaldt in Antiques & Auction News. I think this article will really help define Mehwaldt's career and explain why he is such an important New York-German immigrant red earthenware potter.
An Important 19th Century Painted Red Earthenware Eagle
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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