A Very Well Modeled Late 19th or 20th Century Sewer Tile Bust Found at the Chelsea Flea Market in Manhattan

While visiting New York City over the weekend to see the Big East basketball championship game at Madison Square Garden, my niece and I stopped by the Chelsea Flea Market in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, although we did not expect to find anything. However, I could not resist this late nineteenth or twentieth century sewer tile bust, which I will try to research because I'm hoping it depicts an identifiable person. 

But what really piqued my interest about this object is when the dealer told me that he purchased it from an apartment in Brooklyn, seeing this is where Charles Graham (1854-1907) operated the Chemical Pottery Works, circa 1882-1913. The objects produced at the company were typically adorned with this type of colored glaze on the exterior, as well as a whitish stoneware clay. The company produced primarily stoneware chemical containers, but there was more to production, including vases, indicating that the potters working for Graham remained skilled craftsmen, despite being employed in an industrial environment. Some of these trained potters may have also migrated from Germany, as was the case with some of the other potters working in Brooklyn in the 1800s.

The everyday industrial production at the Chemical Pottery Works in Brooklyn included acid receivers, vats, stop-cocks, sinks, pumps and other articles for chemical works. Production was either thrown on a potter's wheel or molded. The company also produced earthenware wash tubs for installation by plumbers in Brooklyn's modern homes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

According to some past published research, "Many of the stoneware pieces (made in Brooklyn) were coated with a dark brown slip before salt glazed." Some examples of production from this company are displayed today at The Brooklyn Museum in New York City.

Furthermore - I will post a second article if I learn more information about this object - but for additional reading about this type of modeled production - see a feature story I wrote for the June 2, 2023 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, The Other John Bell: Not A Pennsylvania Potter But London Sculptor: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2023/05/new-research-article-in-antiques-and.html.

Note: Busts were also produced at the Union Porcelain Works in Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century, where there are examples of this type of production in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the The Brooklyn Museum: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/1414.

A Very Well Modeled Late 19th or 20th Century Sewer Tile Bust

My Niece Alexis Holding the Late 19th or 20th Century Sewer Tile Bust

Recently Found in an Apartment in Brooklyn

We Came Across it at the Chelsea Flea Market in Manhattan

Stands 14 1/2" Tall

I'm Hoping this is an Identifiable Person

See Article for More Information

Another View of the Bust

This is a Very Well Modeled Object

Possibly Made at the Graham Chemical Pottery Works in Brooklyn

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A View of the Back

The Bust was Coated with a Brown Slip and Salt Glazed

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A View of the Base

This is the Type of Clay that was Used in Brooklyn

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Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...