Last summer, I wrote about an important painted red earthenware wreath on this website that had just been rediscovered by the Das Haus Museum in Berkholz, Niagara County, New York, which was made by Carl Mehwaldt (1809-1887) in Berkholz in the nineteenth century. It is one of three commemorative wreaths known, all of which have been somewhat misplaced through time, and published in an article I wrote for the October 15, 2021 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, Carl Mehwaldt: A Pioneer German-American Potter And 19th-Century Immigrant - Redware From Western New York State. But I also highlighted an important red earthenware eagle in the article posted on this website that is related to the wreaths and also attributed to Mehwaldt. However, this is apparently not the only American-made eagle produced in this style.
Whether it is made out of stoneware or red earthenware, I do not know based on this black and white picture, but this is an object that I have always wondered where it ended up after it was published in 1926 by author John Spargo (1876-1966) in Early American Pottery and China. It is illustrated in Plate 37 and credited to John Barrett (J.B.) Kerfoot (1865-1927); it is also supposedly attributed to Phoenixvile, Pennsylvania, a borough in Chester County located 28 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, no further information is provided about this object, and its whereabouts is unknown to me today (although my guess is that it is privately owned).
Nonetheless, as some of you reading this may already know, J.B. Kerfoot was a literary critic for Life Magazine, amateur photographer, as well as an author that included the book American Pewter published in 1924, where a number of the objects illustrated in the book were photographed from his personal collection.
A Pottery Eagle Published in 1926 and Once Owned by J.B. Kerfoot
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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