There have been some remarkable examples of early American red earthenware and stoneware that have appeared on PBS' Antiques Roadshow through the years, including some pieces that have recently resurfaced at Crocker Farm in Sparks, Maryland. Those objects include a massive twenty-gallon stoneware face jug from Ironton, Ohio that sold in July of 2019 for $177,000, including the buyer's premium, which was previously featured on Antiques Roadshow in 1998.
Nevertheless, this six-gallon stoneware crock also appeared on Antiques Roadshow in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2011, where it was appraised by Ken Farmer, an art and antiques appraiser and advisor based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
According to the episode, the crock was found in Arkansas in the 1940s by the father of the woman who brought the crock on the show. She said her father got it from a man who lived in a cabin and he had ties to the American Civil War. The family became friends, and when the man who lived in the cabin passed away, his relatives told this woman's father that he could clean out the cabin and keep anything that he found in it, which included this crock.
Originally appraised in 2011 for $4,000-$6,000, I suspect this circa 1870-1880 crock is possibly from Ohio, otherwise my guess is that it was made somewhere else in the Midwest, although I have not found any evidence that it has since been sold at auction.
The words "Shoo" Fly and a drawn fly in cobalt I find especially intriguing, seeing that I can only recall having seen this term previously used at the Anna Pottery in Illinois. As previously noted in objects inscribed with this terminology that have sold at Crocker Farm, this phrase was a "very popular tune of the time period, "Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me," written by a white man but whose long since censored lyrics were written as if sung by a stereotyped African-American Civil War soldier."
The importance of this crock is further supported with what appears to be a Civil War soldier, who was applied in hand-drawn cobalt, perhaps representing a Union soldier.
Furthermore, Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me or Shew! fly, don't bother me is a minstrel show song from the 1860s that has remained popular since that time. It was sung by soldiers during the Spanish-American War of 1898, when flies and the yellow fever mosquito were a serious enemy. Bing Crosby even included the song in a medley on his album Join Bing and Sing Along (1959). Today, it is commonly sung by children, and has been recorded on many children's records.
Note: Here is a link to the episode: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/16/tulsa-ok/appraisals/american-stoneware-crock-ca-1880--201104A42/.
19th Century Stoneware Crock Found in Arkansas in the 1940s
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