EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: An Outstanding Moravian Fish Bottle Sells for Six Figures Yesterday at Sotheby's in New York City

Friday, January 20, 2023

An Outstanding Moravian Fish Bottle Sells for Six Figures Yesterday at Sotheby's in New York City

According to the book, Art in Clay: Masterworks of North Carolina Earthenware, "Moravian potters in North Carolina made press-molded earthenware for more than one hundred twenty-five years. The range of forms documented by surviving objects, molds, and references in pottery inventories is far greater than that of any contemporary American ceramic tradition. From smoking pipes to stove tiles, the Moravian potters in Bethabara (historic area in Salem-Winston, North Carolina) and Salem, North Carolina expanded the production of press-molded earthenware to include figural bottles and castors, non-figural bottles, and toys. Rudolph Christ (1750-1833) can be credited for the successful production and marketing of press-molded figural wares during his tenure as master of pottery at Salem (1789-1821).

Of all the figural bottles produced in Salem, fish survive in the greatest number. Most are glazed green on the outside but examples decorated in tortoiseshell colors are known. Fish appear in the April 30, 1801 inventory of the Salem pottery valued at 1 shilling 6 pence each. Three sizes were available the following year, and by 1806 the pottery was producing four patterns - the number represented by surviving molds listed in the 1828 inventory."

Nevertheless, this large tortoiseshell glazed fish bottle sold yesterday at Sotheby's in New York City, and with a pre-auction estimate of $12,000-$18,000, it must have set a record when there were still five phone bidders left at $50,000, eventually selling for $138,600. Related examples can be found displayed in the William and Susan Mariner Southern Ceramics Gallery at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, among other art museums.

The fish was sold as part of the Charles (1935-2019) and Olenka Santore (1942-2019) Collection; Charles was a Philadelphia illustrator, where the couple collected antiques together for about fifty years. Santore, who died in 2019 just months after Olenka passed, was a well-known illustrator of picture books, including Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, and The Night Before Christmas, as well as a series of iconic cover illustrations for TV Guide which are now in the collection of the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia.

Although, part of the reason why this object brought such a strong price is because of its size, glaze and condition, whereas the majority of Moravian fish bottles in existence are found in a 4 1/2 inch size in green glaze. This bottle measures 9 3/4 inches in length. A very similar example like this one sold at Crocker Farm in Maryland in November of 2013 for $23,000.

Furthermore, a similar auction result with a green glazed 4 1/2 inch fish bottle happened at Sotheby's in January of 2014, when it sold for $53,125 from the collection of Ralph C. Esmerian.

Note: The sale also featured a wonderful nineteenth century red earthenware lion bank and pen and ink stand from Pennsylvania that sold reasonably at $3,150.

An Outstanding Moravian Fish Bottle From Salem, N.C.