Extremely Rare Glazed Redware Bellarmine Pitcher, probably Frechen, Germany, 16th or 17th century

July 18, 2015 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 256

Price Realized: $977.50

($850 hammer, plus 15% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 9 years old, and the American ceramics market frequently changes. Additionally, small nuances of color, condition, shape, etc. can mean huge differences in price. If you're interested in having us sell a similar item for you, please contact us here.

July 18, 2015 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Glazed Redware Bellarmine Pitcher, probably Frechen, Germany, 16th or 17th century, highly-ovoid pitcher with applied handle and tall narrow collar accented with tooled banding, the front decorated with a handle-modeled and applied face of a bearded man. Face includes depressed eyes and mouth and incised detail to mustache and beard. Surface covered in a reddish-brown lead-and-manganese glaze. The fact that this Bellarmine pitcher is composed of redware, and not the typical salt-glazed stoneware, makes it exceptionally rare and desirable. The use of a hand-modeled face, as opposed to the more-common molded Bartman, is also unusual. An important example of European utilitarian pottery. Provenance: Salvaged from a sunken ship. Heavy chipping to base. Tiny to small-sized chips to spout and rim, with some painted darkening to a few of the rim chips. A 3/4" shallow glaze flake to body. Other minor wear to body. Some calcium deposits from its time underwater. H 6 1/4".