Unique and Important Anna Pottery Stoneware Shoe Inkwell, Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna, IL

Spring 2023 Stoneware Auction

Lot #: 44

Price Realized: $2,160.00

($1,800 hammer, plus 20% buyer's premium)

PLEASE NOTE: The American ceramics market frequently changes, often dramatically. 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.

Spring 2023 Auction Catalog

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Important and Probably Unique Anna Pottery Stoneware Shoe Inkwell, Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna, IL, 1887, salt-glazed shoe elaborately decorated with crosshatched incising, impressed lace holes, applied heel patch, and ink hole near front, the shoulder incised with the slogan "When the Spring time comes / gentle Annie / Will you still love me when / I am old". This inscription almost certainly refers to Amy Vance, Cornwall Kirkpatrick's second wife. The underside is heavily-incised with crosshatching and squared impressions around the border, the center inscribed "Frederick- / Town / Ohio 1814" and "Anna IL / 1887," referencing the potter's own birth (he being born in Fredericktown, Ohio in 1814) and his final years approaching death, with the date 1887. Cornwall was seventy-three when this inkwell was made and would die just three years later. The surface of the inkwell is highlighted in cobalt and the interior is fired with pieces of light blue glass to resemble water. This creative and unique stoneware piece is important in form and decoration, but perhaps equally significant in its sentiment. In his reference to the love of his wife, his birth and old age, Cornwall offers a rare glimpse into his personal life, and the piece as a whole seems to signify the mortality of the potter. As the Kirkpatrick brothers' pottery pieces were rife with meaning, Cornwall's use of a shoe as an inkwell (possibly molded from one of his children's) may serve as an allusion to where one has traveled in life and where he is headed. A remarkable example of this highly skilled and admired potter's work. Unglazed areas to tongue of shoe and top edge suggest clay was applied to these areas, but lost during the firing. What may have been there is unclear. Shallow chip to top edge. Length 6 3/4".