Extremely Rare and Important Stoneware Pipe Press, Point Pleasant, Ohio, 19th century

July 22, 2017 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 320

Price Realized: $944.00

($800 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.

July 22, 2017 Auction Catalog

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Extremely Rare Stoneware Pipe Press and Related Material from Peterson and Bainum's Clermont Pottery, Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio origin, 19th century, wood-and-iron pipe press with mortise-and-tenon construction, including its original cast iron pipe mold featuring a diamond pattern with stylized foliate stem. Lot includes a second cast iron pipe mold from the Clermont Pottery in a different diamond pattern, as well as a stencil for pipe boxes, reading "100 - IXL / WRAPPED HAMBURG / PIPES & STEMS / MANUFACTURED BY / CLERMONT POTTERY / PT. PLEASANT OHIO.". Included in this lot are also a number of pipes recovered at a Lawrence Count, Ohio home, some of which were produced by this machine, along with a number of unfired pipes, which were molded at Clermont Pottery in 1913. A pipe fired from this group in 1945 by a previous owner, John Rist, is also included. Ephemera sold with this lot include an advertising cover for THE AKRON SMOKING PIPE CO. / MOGADORE, OHIO, dated January 28, 1913, and addressed to "Messrs. Bainum & Peterson", as well as a 1977 manuscript by Don E. Rist, entitled "The Clay Smoking Pipe Manufacturers at Point Pleasant, Ohio. This press was used at the Point Pleasant, Ohio pottery of John Bainum and Thomas B. Peterson, called Clermont Pottery, an operation that ran circa 1890 to 1913. The site was located on the current site of the Grant Memorial Church, a block-and-a-half north of another pipe factory, owned by the firm of Peterson and Bushman. The pipe machine's early construction, including a rose-head nail in the reverse, suggests a period of manufacture earlier than the late 19th century, possibly the 1840s. It was likely purchased from a pottery where Bainum and Peterson were previously employed. One possible prior owner of the press was Cornwall Kirkpatrick, of Anna Pottery fame, who operated a pipe factory in Point Pleasant from 1849 to 1853. This rare survivor is probably the earliest and most significant American ceramic pipe machines in existence. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. does own at least one pipe machine from the Pamplin Pipe Factory in Washington, D.C., which was made after 1880. Provenance: Purchased by the consignor from John F. Rist in 2002; purchased by John F. Rist in 1944 from Thomas B. Peterson, of the pottery firm of Bainum and Peterson known as Clermont Pottery. Literature: For more information on the Point Pleasant clay pipe industry, as well as discussion of John Rist's purchase of this machine with an illustration of it in use, see Sudbury, Byron. Historic Clay Tobacco Pipemakers in the United States of America, BAR International Series 60, 1979, pp. 182-186. Pipe machine is in non-working condition, with some damage, missing its belt. Loss to end of AKRON SMOKING PIPE CO. cover. All other material in this lot survives in good to excellent condition. H 72" ; L 48 1/2" ; W 29 7/8".