$10,665
"COMMERAWS STONEWARE" Crock with Incised Cobalt Decoration, Thomas Commeraw, Manhattan, New York, late 18th/early 19th century, four-gallon ovoid crock with open loop lug handles, molded neck above the shoulder ornamented with incised swag and tassels filled with cobalt blue glaze, impressed maker's mark "COMMERAWS STONEWARE N. YORK," and cobalt-daubed handle terminals, (minor imperfections), ht. 11 3/4 in. Note: According to recent research by Brandt Zipp, a stoneware historian and auctioneer in Sparks, Maryland, Thomas W. Commeraw was a free African-American potter working in the late 18th-early19th century, on Manhattan Island, New York. His workshop was located on the Lower East Side waterfront, and his surviving body of work represents the largest known by a free black potter before the abolition of slavery in the United States. Several fairly unobtrusive small to 1 1/2 in. dia. very shallow chips on rim interior and exterior;1/3 and 13/4 in. dia.chips to shoulder molding, 4 in. hairline from base, the interior with remains of light blue paint, remnants of the same on the exterior.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2012-03-04
