Extremely Rare Lidded Redware Sugar Bowl with Elaborate Four-Color Slip Decoration, attributed to John Leman, Tylersport, Montgomery County, PA, circa 1830, ovoid bowl with footed base and ribbed handles with depressed terminals, decorated with a stylized foliate and dot motif in cream, red, and light-olive slip, applied over a manganese ground, and covered in a clear lead glaze. Interior coated in a white glaze. Bowl includes original domed lid with stepped finial and coggle-decorated border, featuring a similar decoration in a cream, light-olive, red, and green slips over a manganese ground. Underside of bowl incised "8". Excellent form with exceptional decoration. The profuse slip decoration and use of five different-colored slips and glazes is noteworthy. A closely-related sugar bowl with different-colored glaze, attributed to Leman, and a lion-decorated sgraffito plate bearing his signature can be found in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A second, closely-related sugar bowl with a third glaze type can be found in the collection of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA. Literature: A similar example is pictured in Winchester, The Antiques Treasury of Furniture and other Decorative Arts, p. 174, fig. 2. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, purchased in 1965 at a Reading, PA auction held for James Heffner of Boyertown, PA. At the time of sale, the auctioneer stated that the bowl had come from Pennsburg, PA. Wear to handles and rim of bowl. Some expected crazing and light surface wear to interior. Lid with an edge chip, other minor wear to edge and tip of finial, a 5/8" glaze flake to rounded part of lid, and another tiny glaze flake. H 4 1/4" (including lid) ; H (excluding lid) 2 1/2" ; Diameter 5 1/16".
