Unusual Stoneware Jar w/ Coggled Fish and Floral Motif, South Amboy or Old Bridge, NJ

March 25, 2017 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 304

Price Realized: $324.50

($275 hammer, plus 18% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 7 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.

March 25, 2017 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Three-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Coggled Fish-and-Tulip Motif, South Amboy or Old Bridge, NJ origin, early 19th century, ovoid jar with heavily-tooled shoulder and applied lug handles, decorated completely around the shoulder with a highly-unusual coggled design of large ovals depicting a fish and tulip motif. The two central ovals on each side are brushed over in cobalt slip. Additional brushed cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Rim and shoulder also feature a coggled design of vertical oval, and this oval coggle was used in both South Amboy and Old Bridge. It is unclear at which locale the outstanding fish and tulip decoration found on this jar was employed. This very well may be the exact same jar that important early New Jersey stoneware researcher James Brown lent to the Monmouth County Historical Association for an exhibit in 1955, and is pictured in the catalog from that event, entitled simply, "New Jersey Stoneware." The photos in this booklet are poor quality but features of the published jar and this one seems to match up. Either way, that booklet claims that shards found in Old Bridge corroborate the jar as a product of that town. However, it is unclear if Brown was using only the vertical oval coggle or the more elaborate fish one to perform his attribution, and we have not seen the fish and tulip design on any extant verifiable Old Bridge shards; meanwhile, the jar shares a particularly strong similarity with known South Amboy stoneware. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, purchased by the consignor decades ago. A 5 3/4" x 5" reglued wedge on one side with added fill to a surface flake at point of wedge. Exfoliation to base. Base chips. H 12 1/4".