Exceedingly Rare and Important Four-Gallon Stoneware Water Cooler with Elaborate Cobalt Floral Decoration, Stamped "F. STETZENMEYER & / G. GOETZMAN / ROCHESTER. NY", circa 1853-1860, ovoid cooler with tall collar, applied lug handles, and circular bunghole, decorated with a large slip-trailed design of a flowering plant bearing two different blossoms and three buds, including heavy shaded details throughout. Slip-trailed stripe decoration to bunghole. Slip-trailed "4." to shoulder. Brushed cobalt highlights to maker's mark. Frederick Stetzenmeyer pottery is considered some of the most artistic and coveted of all American cobalt-decorated stoneware. Jugs and jars with more-simplistic floral motifs are considered prized examples of New York State stoneware, even among seasoned collectors. This recently-discovered piece stands out among Stetzenmeyer's surviving work as possibly the only extant water cooler bearing his maker's mark. This example was produced during the 1853 to 1860 time period while Stetzenmeyer was in partnership with a local grocer named Gottlieb Goetzman. Exhibiting an elegant form with heavily-decorated bunghole, this cooler features a particularly fine slip-trailed floral motif in the Rochester style. Interestingly, aspects of the slip-trailing suggest the design may have been executed by the venerable master potter, John Burger, Sr. One of the finest examples of Stetzenmeyer stoneware to surface in the last decade. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, consigned from the Midwestern U.S. Exceptional professional restoration to cracks in reverse, a rim chip on left side of cooler's front, and a short line on front to right of maker's mark. H 15 1/2".
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