Extremely Rare One-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Impressed Bird Decoration, Stamped "WARNE & LETTs 1806 / S.AMBOY.N.JERSY", Thomas Warne and Joshua Letts, South Amboy, NJ, 1806, ovoid jar with heavily-tooled shoulder, open loop handles, and impressed column-shaped coggling to rim. Decorated on the front with an impressed and manganese-highlighted design of a bird perched on a branch. Impressed above with the mark, "WARNE & LETTs 1806 / S.AMBOY.N.JERSY", embellished with heavily-brushed manganese highlights. Additional manganese highlights to handle terminals. This jar is significant in its impressed figural design. While a number of Warne & Letts pieces are known featuring impressed crescent or "clamshell" motifs, only a few signed examples with bird decorations are known. This jar is the first bird-decorated Warne & Letts piece we have sold. An unsigned Warne & Letts teapot, featuring the same impressed bird and coggled rim designs as seen on this jar, was sold in Crocker Farm, Inc.'s October 24, 2014 auction. This example ranks as one of the finest Warne & Letts stoneware objects we have ever offered. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, purchased by the consignor decades ago; Ex-Sothebys. Cracks to right side of jar's front, extending onto side of jar, one of which also continues onto midsection of reverse. A base chip and small glazed-over base chip. A small, in-the-firing separation to one handle. H 9".
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