Auction results continue to remain strong for the best cobalt decorated examples of stoneware made in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century. Some recent results include a circa 1865 Cowden & Wilcox stoneware crock with a cobalt decorated deer and trees, which sold for $54,000 plus the buyer's premium in January 2025, as well as a circa 1865 Cowden & Wilcox stoneware crock with a cobalt decorated deer that sold in September 2024 for $54,000 plus the buyer's premium, among other recent results.
For a brief history about this business: John Wallace Cowden (1817-1872) and Isaac Wilcox (1831-1906) initially established and ran this pottery in Harrisburg, although the company was also known as C.W. Pottery. The factory was a ceramic manufacturing company that was established in 1861, after Harrisburg was incorporated as a city on March 19, 1860, whereas the factory produced pottery until about 1923. This business mostly produced stoneware, but they also made some red earthenware, where production from this company was distributed locally, although it was also marketed in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Nevertheless, some good examples of Cowden and Wilcox stoneware sold over the weekend at Conestoga Auctions in Manheim, Pennsylvania, all of which came from the collection of Ronald E. Hammer, who was a life long resident of New Oxford, Pennsylvania. He was also regarded as one of the most significant folk art collectors of his generation.
One of those stoneware objects was a cobalt decorated three-gallon crock with a foxglove and large leaf design, impressed "COWDEN & WILCOX / HARRISBURG PA," which sold for $31,000 plus the buyer's premium: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/199686171_cowden-and-wilcox-3-gal-bulbous-form-crock.
A second Cowden and Wilcox piece of stoneware sold for $10,000 plus the buyer's premium that was decorated with a bird in cobalt, while a man-in-the-moon cobalt decorated crock also sold for $10,000 plus the buyer's premium.
Another notable object was a signed Hamilton Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania slip-decorated red earthenware covered jar from the 1800s, which sold for $5,000 plus the buyer's premium: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/199733290_rare-signed-hamilton-twp-adams-co-covered-jar.
There was also a nineteenth century cobalt decorated stoneware jug that was signed by John Bell of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, which sold for $14,000 plus the buyer's premium: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/199733347_j-bell-waynesboro-pa-miniature-stoneware-jug.
The sale also included a nineteenth century slip decorated red earthenware bowl made at the John Bell Pottery in Waynesboro; the bowl was made as part of a large set of bowls for the Snow Hill Nunnery in Pennsylvania in the 1800s, whereas this example sold for $11,000 plus the buyer's premium: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/199733251_snow-hill-nunnery-2-color-slip-redware-bowl
For the rest of the pottery in the sale - see the auction catalogs --
Day 1 of the Ronald E. Hammer Collection: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/363458_2-day-auction-for-ronald-e-hammer-est-day-1/
Day 2 of the Ronald E. Hammer Collection: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/363546_2-day-auction-for-ronald-e-hammer-est-day-2/
Note: For more information about the John Bell Pottery - see a feature story I wrote for the December 7, 2018 issue of Antiques and Auctions News, titled, The Bell Pottery Collection At The Renfrew Museum in Waynesboro, Pa: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2018/12/feature-story-published-in-antiques-and.html.
Good Examples of 19th C. Cowden & Wilcox Stoneware from Harrisburg, PA
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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