Extremely Rare Cobalt-Decorated Stoneware Face Inkwell with Applied Frog, Inscribed "Anna Pottery / 1887," Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna, IL, 1887, hand-modeled in the form of a boy's head with closed eyes, protruding ears, and open mouth bearing a small row of upper teeth, surmounted by a hand-modeled figure of a frog. Incised details and cobalt highlights throughout. Underside incised with the cobalt-highlighted signature, "Anna Pottery / 1887." Few Anna face inkwells are known; when found, they portray the face as two-dimensionally incised onto a mound or stylistically modeled in the form of a disc. This work instead depicts the face as fully molded, conveying anatomical realism, and is the only example of its kind that we have seen. As with other Anna works, a sense of excitement or urgency is created as the boy opens his mouth to yell, frightened by the frog's landing on his head. Provenance: Recently surfaced in the Pacific Northwest. Excellent, essentially as-made condition, the reverse with an in-the-firing kiln scar and small amount of kiln residue. L 2 7/8" ; H 2 3/4".
