Extremely Rare and Important Stoneware Jar with Profuse Incised Floral Decoration, Stamped "COERLEARS HOOK / N. YORK," Thomas Commeraw, Manhattan, NY, late 18th century, approximately one-gallon, ovoid jar with heavily-tooled shoulder, footed base, and applied vertical handles, both sides decorated with a large and crisply-incised design of a fanned flower blossom extending from a leafy stem. Incised decorations delicately-filled with vibrant cobalt slip. Collar impressed with the cobalt-highlighted signature "COERLEARS HOOK" on one side and "N. YORK" on the opposite side. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. This jar is one of a small number of important pieces known bearing the earliest impressed Manhattan maker's mark known, "COERLEARS HOOK," which was employed during Thomas Commeraw's first years as an independent potter. The few "COERLEARS HOOK" examples known feature exceptionally well-excuted incised designs, which often rival the work of Commeraw's contemporaries, Clarkson Crolius, Sr. and John Remmey III. Moreover, the color and even glazing of these early jars often show a sophistication in firing, which excels beyond most extant Crolius and Remmey examples. The jar offered here is one of the finest-decorated and most attractively-colored of surviving "COERLEARS HOOK" pieces. A similarly-decorated jar is currently in the Remensnyder Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Both handles are professionally restored. Professionally-restored Y-shaped crack extending from shoulder to underside. (This restoration does not touch the decoration.) Three very minor rim chips. Thin, sealed horizontal crack at base. Minor glazed-over base chip. H 9 1/2".
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