Crocker Farm Stoneware Auction to Sell Important 1818 Albany, NY Pottery Water Cooler

March 2, 2009 - PRLog -- A newly-discovered example of early New York State stoneware will cross the block at Crocker Farm's next auction of Fine Antique American Stoneware and Redware Pottery, to be held on March 21st at the York Expo Center in York, PA. The piece, purchased from a Georgia couple approximately twenty years ago and consigned from the southeastern U.S., is an incised keg-form water cooler produced by the brothers, Jonah and Calvin Boynton, at their Washington Street pottery in Albany, NY. Estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and bearing the maker's mark "BOYNTON" in large letters on the reverse, the cooler is additionally incised "Albany August 7, 1817" on the front. The location "Albany" in this inscription led to the misbelief by the vessel's previous owners that it was made in Albany, Georgia. Anthony Zipp, co-owner of Crocker Farm Auction, notes, "The fact that this great New York cooler has been tucked away in the deep South, virtually unknown to the collecting community, really adds to its appeal. We are always excited about fresh-to-the-market finds like this."

The cooler is small in stature, standing only 12 3/4" tall and measuring approximately two gallons. Six impressed and cobalt-brushed rosettes form an arc at the base, above its hexagonal bung hole. Most noteworthy about the cooler is its fine incised and cobalt-filled animal decorations, which adorn the vessel in two places; the shoulder is decorated with a large, heavily-scaled fish opposed by a long-billed shorebird with crested head. Below this design, a second shorter-billed bird is met by a differently-styled fish with an open, multi-toothed mouth. In both instances, the bird appears to be pecking or "kissing" the fish's head.

Zipp believes the cooler represents a shift towards higher artistic quality in Albany's potting tradition. "The bird and fish designs certainly make this piece exceptional, but it is the quality of these designs that really make us take notice. The decorator of this cooler had a real artistic flair, an attention to detail and steadiness of hand, that is rarely seen in earlier Albany works." By contrast, incised designs on pieces made earlier or contemporaneously at the Paul Cushman pottery, also located on Washington Street, and even other examples attributed to the Boyntons, are often considered somewhat crude and naive.  

An exhibition in 2006 called "Paul Cushman: The Work and World of an Early 19th Century Albany Potter," held at the Albany Institute of History and Art, drew the public's attention to Cushman and other Albany stoneware potters. Zipp continues, "When viewed in the context of pottery items on display in that exhibition, this cooler certainly would've been one of the standout pieces. We believe it is one of the finest examples of Albany stoneware known."

The cooler is lot #1 in a sale of approximately three-hundred lots of stoneware and redware, to be sold at 10 am on Saturday, March 21. A preview of all lots will be held at the York Expo Center's Old Main Building from 1pm to 4pm on Friday, and from 8am to 10 am on Saturday. For more information call Crocker Farm at (410) 337-5090, e-mail the company at stoneware@crockerfarm.com, or view its website, http://www.crockerfarm.com.

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About Crocker Farm, Inc.:

Crocker Farm, Inc. conducts live auctions of antique American stoneware & redware pottery. Based in Baltimore County, Maryland, Crocker Farm's auctions are held at the York Expo Center in York, Pennsylvania. Bidders attend the auction and bid from all over the United States via several different bidding methods: absentee bidding, live phone bidding, and live internet bidding. The company is run by the Zipp family, who have been selling antique American stoneware and redware since 1983 and whose knowledge on the subject is unsurpassed. Visit the Crocker Farm website for more information: www.crockerfarm.com.