Rare Redware Jug attrib. Capt. John Norton, Bennington, VT, late 18th / early 19th century

Fall 2020 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 37

Price Realized: $960.00

($800 hammer, plus 20% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: This result is 4 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.

Fall 2020 Auction Catalog

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Exceedingly Rare and Important Diminutive Slip-Decorated Redware Jug, attributed to Abel Wadsworth at the Captain John Norton Pottery, Bennington, VT, late 18th or early 19th century, ovoid jug with footed base and rounded mouth, the shoulder decorated with an incised design of a wavy line flanked by two straight lines. Body decorated with a blackish-brown lead-and-manganese glaze overlain with three different stylized designs in brushed yellow slip. The left side of the jug features a horizontal tulip blossom, the midsection an X, and the right side second tulip blossom or three-leafed foliate device. This jug is representative of the early beginnings of the Norton potting dynasty in which the family patriarch and Revolutionary War veteran, Captain John Norton, produced redware on his farm in Bennington, Vermont, after moving there in 1785. A well-documented "rosetta stone" jug by the same hand carries a detailed family provenance indicating it was made by potter, Abel Wadsworth, while working at the Captain John Norton pottery, for a young girl named Omindia (Armstrong) Gerry. Redware pieces from this period in Norton family pottery production are considered extremely rare and attributions to this site are limited. The jug in this auction is considered highly important as a smaller sibling to the "Gerry jug," one of the most iconic examples of Vermont redware known. Literature: Closely-related Omindia Gerry jug illustrated as Plate I in Barret, R.C., Bennington Pottery and Porcelain: Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1958; Gerry jug additionally discussed on p. 5 of the 1972 reprint of Spargo, John, The Potters and Potteries of Bennington: Houghton Mifflin Company and Antiques, Dover Publications, New York, 1926. Missing handle. Base chip. H 5 1/4".