As I have mentioned on this website a number of times in the past, I have a 700-800 page Western New York book coming out in 2024, as part of my pottery book series published by Historic Beverly in Massachusetts. And among the highlights in the book is chapter devoted to the red earthenware manufactured at the Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831) Pottery in Rochester, New York. This chapter will include extensive archaeological artifacts recovered by archaeologists at the site of the Rochester Pottery, now kept at the Rochester Museum & Science Center.
Interestingly, though, a good nineteenth century multi-colored slip-decorated red earthenware jar attributed to the Rochester Pottery (although multi-colored slipware was also produced at other potteries in Western New York) sold today at Roberson's Auctions in Pine Bush, New York.
However, the color of the glaze on this jar is really a standout, seeing that it is so bright; these types of jars can also be adorned in darker glazes. Furthermore, the jar did have a few minor issues with some glaze loss and a crack, but nonetheless an excellent jar to own, whereas it sold for $2,900 plus the buyer's premium.
Another notable object in the sale was an early nineteenth century slip-decorated red earthenware plate that was impressed on the back "J. McCULLY / TRENTON." There is not a lot known about the McCully Pottery's production today in Trenton, New Jersey, but some objects are properly connected to this business, based on this stamp that was intermittently applied in production, where Joseph McCully and his nephew, also Joseph McCully operated a red earthenware pottery from the late eighteenth century until 1852.
There are also some good marked examples of this company's production displayed at such museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and the Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey. This example sold today for $600 plus the buyer's premium.
Furthermore, there was also a good circa 1893-1906 molded stoneware pitcher made by George Ohr (1857-1918) in Biloxi, Mississippi. This pitcher was consigned to the auction from a local home, although it was previously owned by James Carpenter, who was originally a small-town barber from Montague, New Jersey, with a side hustle as an antiques dealer — or maybe vice versa.
According to an article published on the television network PBS' website, titled, Who's James Carpenter? The Man Who Bought Ohr's Pottery, "In 1968 Carpenter and his wife had traveled south on a routine hunting expedition for antique cars and auto parts. Along the way, they encountered the Ohrs' Biloxi homestead and auto junkyard business — together with the family's vast inventory of eccentric, and very dusty, pottery, which had remained since Ohr shutdown his pottery business in the early 1900s. The sheer plenitude of Ohr's pottery still in storage there made a massive impression on the couple.
Seeing an opportunity, Carpenter made the Ohrs an
offer for the whole lot, and although the Ohr brothers rebuffed his first and a
few subsequent offers, they eventually settled on a price (somewhere in the
vicinity of $100,000, according to Ohr family oral history). Carpenter
personally hauled the cache of some 10,000 pieces of pottery — a motley assortment of
masterpieces, knickknacks, and everything between — north to New Jersey, just on the outskirts of New York City.
David Rago,
a pottery expert on the Antiques Roadshow and owner of Rago Auctions in Lambertville, New Jersey, as well as a passionate Ohr connoisseur, has
known and worked with Carpenter for over 40 years. Rago says Carpenter deserves
credit for patiently introducing Ohr's work into Manhattan's burgeoning
art-pottery market during the 1970s and 1980s.
According to Rago, Carpenter not only rediscovered Ohr's pottery, he also had the shrewdness and courage to mortgage practically everything he owned to invest in it — "as well as the good fortune to live just an hour outside New York City." From there, he spent a lifetime methodically making good on one savvy gamble."
Interestingly, this pitcher is not considered the norm for Ohr's production today, where it seems to be imitating English pottery production, and it is marked on both sides "G.E. OHR OF BILOXI." Additionally, there are only so many examples of these types of pitchers known, which are decorated in a magnitude of different glaze patterns, such as a more subtly glazed pitcher that is owned by the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. But there are also other styles of these kind of pitchers known from Ohr today decorated with classical figures in relief, which are thought to have been made about 1895, as well as another type of pitcher known as "Clive in India" with a battle scene. Nevertheless this pitcher sold today for $650 plus the buyer's premium.
Note: Here is also a link to a great article that Rago wrote about his early experience with Ohr's pottery: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2013/11/18/i-really-hated-ohr/
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
No comments:
Post a Comment