Very Rare One-and-a-Half-Gallon Cobalt-Decorated Stoneware Jar with Old Sparta, NC Advertising, Baltimore, MD origin, circa 1880, cylindrical jar with tooled shoulder and squared rim, decorated with a scalloped cobalt border around the advertising, "W, G. WEBB / GENERAL MERCHANDISE / OLD SPARTA N. C." Three diagonally-brushed cobalt flowers adorn the shoulder. Relatively few Baltimore-made advertising pieces for the North Carolina market are known, this example including better than usual decoration. An approximately 6 1/2" x 5 1/2" fork-shaped crack to shoulder area. A few short lines in rim. A shallow in-the-firing chip to exterior of rim and a post-firing chip to interior of rim. A tight 1 3/4" Y-shaped crack at base, forming a large, tight spider crack to underside, most of which is not visible on interior. Minor in-the-firing flaws to surface. H 11 1/2".