Rare and Important Glazed Redware Dish with Four-Color Slip Decoration, attributed to the Albright/Loy Family, Alamance County, NC, late 18th or early 19th century, shallow dish with flared and rounded rim, the interior coated in a distinctive black manganese slip, decorated around the rim area with white-and-orange-slip drape, tassel, and spot motifs; interior center decorated in copper, white, and orange slips with a series of spots and banding surrounding a stylized flower blossom, further decorated around the cavetto with alternating white and copper slip banding. This dish's swag-and-tassel motif can be related to popular Federal designs of the period seen on everything from furniture to textiles to pottery, including those adorning stoneware pieces by Manhattan's Thomas Commeraw and Clarkson Crolius, Sr., among others. Its black-slip background overlain with slipwork is highly distinctive to the region, rarely seen in the work of other early American redware potteries. Several of the earliest examples of documented Alamance County redware feature a dark background in this manner, suggesting this work was also made relatively early in the existence of this potting school, shortly before or after the year 1800. Few North Carolina redware objects of this quality are made available for sale on the open market, as most currently reside in museum collections. This bowl is the first example that we have offered featuring the region's classic, black-glazed surface. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, from a New England private collection. Strong condition for redware of this origin and age, with some wear to interior and a few shallow rim chips. Diameter 11" ; H 1 3/4".
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