Lot #: 46
Estimate: $20,000-$30,000.A Note About Estimates
Minimum Bid: $5,000.
Important and Possibly Unique Five-Gallon Lidded Stoneware Water Cooler with Incised Floral Decoration, Inscribed "Made by Jn Floyd / June 30 1857 / Knox Couty(sic) Tenn," John Floyd at the Graves Pottery, Knox County, TN, 1857, ovoid cooler with narrow, semi-squared mouth, two ribbed vertical handles applied at the shoulder, and individually-thrown and applied bunghole in the form of a jug spout; decorated at the shoulder with a delicately-incised and cobalt-highlighted design of a flower with hollow details to the blossom's petals. Reverse incised with the cobalt-highlighted inscription, "Made by Jn Floyd / June 30 / 1857 / Knox County Tenn," below an impressed five-gallon capacity mark. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals and bunghole. Includes original domed lid with brushed cobalt swag decoration and a highlight to its pointed finial. One of the finest examples of Tennessee stoneware known, this vessel combines form, decoration, and an exceedingly rare signature to produce a Southern masterwork of great significance to the migration of American ceramic traditions. Its curious incised decoration strongly connects it to the Manhattan potting tradition and suggests a possible connection between Floyd and Manhattan-trained potter, John Morgan, of Rockbridge County, VA or someone else. Variants of its floral design have been found on pieces bearing the stamps of potter, David Morgan, a possible brother of John Morgan, and Thomas Commeraw, both active on the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 18th and early 19th century. The cooler, with its boldly-penned signature on the reverse, serves as a "rosetta stone" piece allowing for subsequent attribution of other vessels to Floyd's hand. The following excerpt from Wahler's Tennesssee Turned, Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee 1800-1900, Part One outlines this potter's life: "John Floyd, born in Virginia, was listed as a potter in the Knox County 1850 population census. He apparently worked for George Graves. The word apparently is used because documentation exists of a land transaction in 1831 in which John Floyd purchased land for the use of G. Graves. Floyd then traveled back and forth to Ohio between 1831 and 1850. He has not been located in the population census or other records in 1840. His first four children were born in Ohio between 1840 and 1849. His fifth child was born in Knox County in 1851. Floyd remained in Knox County until after 1870. The town of Corryton was originally called Floyd Station" (Wahler, p. 14). Equally decorative and rare, this work is distinguished as one of the cornerstones of Wahler's extraordinary collection. Exhibited: Handed Down, 1986; Made in East Tennessee: Pottery, Museum of East Tennessee History, 1996; Tennessee Turned, Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee 1800-1900, Museum of East Tennessee History, May 16-October 30, 2011. Literature: Illustrated in White, Great Road Style: The Decorative Arts Legacy of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, p. 152; Illustrated in Wahler, Tennessee Turned, Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee 1800-1900, Part One, p. 102, fig. 107, p. 120, pl. 18, p. 208. For information on Floyd, see Wahler, pp. 14-15. Provenance: Purchased by Wahler at Garth's Auction, Delaware, OH in 1984. In her notes, Wahler writes, "Purchased through Garth's Auction. It was pictured on the cover and I realized that it looked like Rockbridge Co., VA. Then I put my reading glasses on and was I surprised to read Jn Floyd Knox Couty (sic). Tried to learn about the seller through Tom Porter but never succeeded." Cooler with hairlines to base area, extending to midsection, a 7/8" chip to bunghole, and a narrow 1" in-the-firing ping to base. Lid with heavy chipping around edge and a 1 1/4" chipped area to finial. H (including lid) 18 1/2".
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