Extremely Rare Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware Vase with Applied Snake and Grapes, Signed "Lanier Meaders," Cleveland, Georgia, circa 1978, tall vase with ovoid shoulder, flared collar, and semi-rounded rim, decorated with a large applied clay snake surrounding the collar, above applied grape cluster, vine, and leaf motifs on the front and reverse. The snake's head includes flattened clay ball eyes and an incised mouth, its body attached to the vase's surface with wads of applied clay. Surface of vase covered in a light-olive glaze with darker coloration to the grapes. Snake elaborately-decorated with cobalt crosshatching and brown spots. Incised "Lanier Meaders" on underside. It is believed that Meaders produced very few snake vases, and we have sold only one other example since our inception in 2004. A masterpiece by Georgia's preeminent ceramic folk artist and one of his finest works to come to auction in years. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, consigned from the West Coast. Literature: For discussion of this Meaders form, see John Burrison, Brothers in Clay, University of Georgia Press, 2008, p. 273; Similar vase pictured on cover of John Burrison, From Mud to Jug, University of Georgia Press with the Folk Pottery Museum of Northern Georgia, 2010. As-made condition with in-the-firing lines to underside, extending onto base area, where they are glazed over. These lines largely remain in the exterior surface and are generally not visible on the interior. An in-the-firing separation in tail of snake. H 13 1/2".
