Exceedingly Rare and Important Heart-Shaped Stoneware Inkstand with Profuse Cobalt Decoration, Baltimore, MD origin, probably Perine Pottery, circa 1840, large-sized, slab-constructed inkstand in the form of a heart, the top surface decorated with heavily slip-trailed swags, a dotted star design, and brushed heart at the base. Sides of inkstand decorated with cross-hatched slip-trailing. Edges decorated with brushed cobalt highlights. Includes original wheel-thrown stoneware well and sander, which are decorated with heavy cobalt and fit into carved holes in each half of the heart. Four holes carved near the point of the heart are designed to hold quills. The heart-shaped inkstand is one of the rarest and most coveted of all known early American ceramic forms. A heart-shaped inkstand produced in the 18th century by a member of the Crolius family previously held the auction record for an example of American salt-glazed stoneware, bringing $148,500 at Sotheby's in 1991. A copper-and-manganese-decorated redware example by Moravian potter, John Holland, in the collection of Old Salem Museum and Gardens, is among the great masterworks of American redware. Decoratively speaking, the inkstand in this auction is second in its medium only to the William Crolius example. It serves as an important Southern counterpart to this iconic New York work, exchanging Crolius's intricate incised and impressed decoration for elaborately brushed and slip-trailed cobalt in the Baltimore tradition. A related circular inkwell, made at the Maulden Perine Pottery in Baltimore by potter, Philip Miller, in 1838 resides in the collection of the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Visually stunning in its size, bold application of cobalt, and refined color, this lot is among the great American ink receptacles known and a remarkable survivor, retaining both inserts. Literature: A heart-shaped inkwell with cobalt border, possibly by Paul Cushman, in the Weitsman collection at the New York State Museum, is illustrated in Paul Cushman, The Work and World of an Early 19th Century Albany Pottery, pg. 26. Provenance: Crocker Farm, Inc., March 3, 2012, lot 31. Inkstand with two small edge chips to base of heart, as well as some minor wear to top edge of heart. Inkstand additionally has a few tight lines to top surface and a flake to interior of hole into which the sander fits, only visible when the stand is held on an angle. Top of sander broken off and reglued. Minor base chips to well. L 5 3/4" ; W 6" ; H 2".
