Extremely Rare and Important One-Gallon Stoneware Jar with Incised Gentleman's Profile, Old Bridge, NJ, circa 1820, ovoid jar with tooled shoulder, semi-squared rim, and applied lug handles, decorated with an incised and cobalt-highlighted gentleman's profile with prominent nose, long hair with sideburns and queue, and ascot. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. The form, including rim and handle construction, leads to a firm attribution to Old Bridge, New Jersey, likely at the Morgan and van Wickle or Bissett potteries. The incising on this jar was probably executed by the same hand that decorated a variety of Old Bridge pieces with veined leaves, often with an elongated flower at the center, and brushed early 1820's dates on the reverse. The propensity for such incised pieces to bear the date, 1823, led early scholars, Robert Sim and James Brown, to refer to the decorator, theorized to be Joseph Henry Remmey, as the "1823 Man." The detail of the design, including the figure's queued hair, suggest it may be a portrait of a specific person, possibly the potter and/or decorator or a member of his family. Among the most finely-decorated examples of New Jersey stoneware that we have offered. Excellent condition with small rim chis and a small surface chip to figure's ear. H 11 1/4".
