Exceedingly Rare and Important Glazed Stoneware Face Jug with Black and Blue Slip Decoration, Signed "CM," Arie Meaders at the Cheever Meaders Pottery, Cleveland, GA, circa 1956-1969, squat-shaped, ovoid jug decorated with a hand-modeled and applied clay face including orb-shaped eyes set within broad, flattened lids, curved ears, broad nose with depressed nostrils, flattened mouth with incised mustache above, and rounded chin. Heavily-incised hair to top and reverse of jug. Surface covered in a grayish glaze with blue and blackish slip highlights to eyes and blackish slip highlights to mustache and hair. Underside inscribed in black with the initials, "CM," indicating it was made at the shop of Arie Meaders's husband, Cheever. An approximate total of only twenty-five face jugs are known by Arie Meaders, the mother of Lanier Meaders, a woman today regarded as the South's leading female folk ceramicist. This lot, significant among this group for its beautifully decorated and glazed surfaced, is one of her finest works known. Literature: Illustrated on the cover of Crocker and Crouch, The Folk Pottery of Cheever, Arie, and Lanier Meaders: A Pictorial Legacy. As-made condition with a firing crack around chin. H 6 3/4" ; Diam. (at base) 5".
