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Important and Possibly Unique Glazed Redware Jar, Inscribed "Lees / burg / Louden (sic) / County / Va 1843 / Gum Spring," attributed to the Gardner/Duncan Family, Loudoun County, VA, 1843, cylindrical jar with footed base, incised line to midsection, tapered shoulder, and semi-rounded rim, the exterior and interior surface covered in a lead-based glaze featuring mottled red hues accented with mustard-colored runs and darker flecking. This beautifully-glazed work serves as a missing link to a prolific Northern Virginia potting school operated by the intermarried Gardner and Duncan families. A few signed or attributed cobalt-decorated stoneware pieces are known by members of these families, including a double-spouted ring flask, which set a record for Virginia stoneware in Crocker Farm, Inc.'s Spring 2023 auction. To our knowledge, this jar is the only surviving redware piece from these families bearing an inscription of any sort. It is illustrated and discussed in "Lost Potters of Loudoun County Virginia: The Gardner-Duncan Family," Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2019. Regarding this jar, Bertsch writes:
"The glazed redware piece is mended and bears no distinctive decoration, yet the inscription on the base is significant. Within a triangle cursive lettering reads, 'Lees / burg / Louden / County Va / 1843' and outside the triangle to the right the same lettering reads, 'Gum Spring' (Figure 24). The glaze, probably manganese, is identical to that found on some of the sherds at the Sycolin kiln site, but the community of Gum Spring, now called Arcola, is several miles south of the Sycolin site. Based on the date and location alone, it seems the jar was made by George Duncan or Lewis or William Gardner at another kiln. The land the Gardners owned in the 1840s was part of the Arcola community and quite close to the land Lewis Gardner’s in-laws owned along Broad Run when they operated their pottery at the turn of the century."
Anecdotal evidence that a kiln was established in Gum Spring during the colonial era offers a tantalizing clue that this jar may have been made there and not further north at another Gardner/Duncan site (see theforgottensouth.com/arcola-gum-spring-va-history). Regardless, the paucity of marked or inscribed redware objects from Northern Virginia easily validates this vessel among the most important regional ceramic works. Provenance: From a forty-five-year VA collection, acquired by the consignor in Leesburg in 1978. Literature: Illustrated and discussed in Bertsch, "Lost Potters of Loudoun County Virginia: The Gardner-Duncan Family," Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2019. Reglued breaks to upper half of jar. A few cracks from rim descending to lower half of jar. Chips and wear to rim. A thin line of wear around lower edge of shoulder. A 7/8" base chip. An old wire used to secure the jar is unnecessary. H 7 3/4".
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