For anyone who visited The Winter Show last month in Manhattan, then you may have recognized a nineteenth century cobalt decorated stoneware water cooler from New York that I previously posted about, which was displayed as part of a special exhibition booth, titled, Focus: Americana. The exhibition featured a presentation of paintings, furniture, design, ceramics, miniatures, folk art, among other decorative objects from eight of the foremost Americana dealers, including Olde Hope Antiques, David Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles Fine Americana, Allan Katz Americana, Elle Shushan, Jeffrey Tillou Antiques, Kelly Kinzle, and Levy Galleries. This exhibition was also curated by Alexandra Kirtley, curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The unmarked heavily cobalt decorated cooler was exhibited by folk art dealer Allan Katz from Madison, Connecticut, although until last fall, it had been owned as part of the personal collection of auctioneer Bernard J. Brzostek of Brzostek’s Auction Service, Inc. in Baldwinsville, New York. The detailed cobalt scene, included what appears to be two flowers, vines and a perched bird.
Additionally, I remember having conversations about this object with a few people prior to its sale last fall, and among the names that was suggested for its place of manufacture was William H. Farrar's (1812-1876) stoneware business in Geddes (Syracuse), Onondaga County, New York. Farrar worked at this location from the 1840s to the early 1870s, whereas he seems to have been the pioneer potter in Geddes, which was absorbed by Syracuse in 1886. According to the 1855 United States Federal Census, Farrar is cited as owning a stoneware pottery business and employing six workers.
The most prominent example of Farrar's production from Geddes is unquestionably a seven-gallon water cooler made in 1846 that depicts the celebration of the Great National Jubilee of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, an organization founded in New York City in 1842, which is now owned as part of Adam Weitsman's Collection at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York. This monumental object sold at Crocker Farm in Maryland in 2020 for $480,000 including the buyer's premium: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2020-03-21/lot-28/The-Broadway-Water-Cooler-American-Stoneware-at-Its-Greatest-Geddes-NY/.
Some other notable examples of Farrar's stoneware production from Geddes include a rooster decorated two-gallon jug that sold at Crocker Farm in 2016 for $19,550 including the buyer's premium, whereas a six-gallon double rooster butter churn is also owned as part of Adam Weitsman's Collection at the New York State Museum.
Furthermore, an unmarked five-gallon crock, incised with birds, flowers and leaves, while the reverse side is incised with tulips and leaves, all of which was highlighted with cobalt was reported to have been manufactured during Farrar's early production period in Geddes during the mid-1840s; that object just sold at Sotheby's last month in Manhattan from the collection of Peter and Leslie Warwick of New Jersey for just over $36,000, including the buyer's premium: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/americana/an-incised-and-cobalt-blue-decorated-five-gallon. The crock was also previously owned by Vicki and Bruce Waasdorp of Clarence, New York, and exhibited by folk art dealer David Wheatcroft at the Antique Dealers' Association of America Show in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 2011.
However, it seems that Farrar's work first received recognition in publication in an article written by Mary E. Davison in 1938 for The Magazine Antiques, titled, William H. Farrar, Potter, where the pottery's original sign from about 1855 was cited; the sign noted that he produced Rockingham pottery. Farrar was also mentioned in a book written by Dwight Bruce in 1895, title, Onandaga's Centennial: Gleanings of a Century: "...The pottery was started some years earlier by William H. Farrar, for the manufacture of "red ware" from the clay found in Geddes. This was afterwards given up and gray ware made from clay brought from New Jersey by boat."
Nonetheless, there is a very good example of stoneware made at Farrar's company in Geddes, circa 1850s-1860s, which is included as part of the good stoneware collection that I have been writing about, currently available at Antiques Associates At West Townsend in Massachusetts. This three-gallon jug is adorned with a bird and flower within a stylized folky ground issuing grasses, and the gallon capacity "3" is also applied in cobalt.
This is a very good object, and the jug ideally demonstrates how good cobalt decorations on stoneware crossover today into the realm of American folk art. In fact, this type of bird decoration may be considered one of the iconic cobalt designs from the Farrar Pottery in Geddes, seeing that it is found today with subtle differences in the design used on different shapes, including jugs and butter churns.
Link to the jug: https://www.aaawt.com/antique/stoneware-jug-with-cobalt-bird-flower-decoration-marked-geddes-n-y/
For more information - contact A.A.A.W.T.: https://www.aaawt.com/about/
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