Exceedingly Rare and Important Miniature Stoneware Jug with Cobalt Pomegranate and Floral Motifs, attributed to the Kemple Pottery, Ringoes, NJ, circa 1746-1795, highly-ovoid jug with narrow spout and ribbed strap handle, decorated on the body with two large brushed "pomegranate" motifs, composed of looping strokes of cobalt slip. Lower handle terminal decorated with a large brushed flower blossom. Upper handle terminal with cobalt highlight. Two other related miniature jugs, also featuring decoration emanating from the base of the handle, were sold by Crocker Farm in 2011 and 2017 and carried strong attributions to potter, Adam States, Sr., active in New Jersey, Manhattan, NY, and Greenwich, CT, during the mid 18th century. This example, however, features openwork lobes of cobalt slip on the body, a design distinctive to the Kemple family of Ringoes, NJ, described as pomegranates in the Goldberg, Warwick, and Warwick article, "The Eighteenth-Century New Jersey Stoneware Potteries of Captain James Morgan and the Kemple Family", published in Ceramics in America 2008. The jug's large daisy motif, which emanates from the base of the handle, was possibly influenced by 18th century Manhattan, NY potteries or the Captain James Morgan Pottery of Cheesequake, NJ. The importance of this object lies in its early date of manufacture and size. It was made somewhere within the first twenty to seventy years of cobalt-decorated stoneware manufacture in America, with a bulbous, narrow-spouted form based upon the Old World style. It is among the earliest stoneware miniatures known and is also likely the smallest intact example of Kemple stoneware to be recorded. Provenance: Recently discovered in a Pennsylvania collection. Excellent condition with a small, 3/8" chipped section to base. H 5 1/4".
