Lot #: 60
Estimate: $4,000-$8,000.A Note About Estimates
Minimum Bid: $1,500.
Exceedingly Rare and Important Oversized Stoneware Presentation Ring Jug with Elaborate Cobalt Decoration, Inscribed "Samuel Davault / June 25 / 1896," attributed to the Decker Pottery, Washington County, TN, circa 1872-1910, wheel-thrown, ring-shaped form with separately-thrown applied semi-squared spout and pedestal base, the interior of the ring with applied pierced clay tab for hanging; decorated on the front and reverse with profuse cobalt spotting culminating in a stylized flower blossom at the top. Additional cobalt spot decoration surrounding spout. Interior base of jug with brushed star flanked by four spots. Cobalt band to base. Base inscribed "Samuel Davault / June 25 / 1896." This ring jug's recipient is most likely the Samuel Davault listed in period census records as a farmer in Buffalo Ridge, Washington County, TN, roughly twenty miles north of the Decker pottery. Outstanding form. The largest 19th century American stoneware ring jug that we are aware of as well as the only documented cobalt-decorated example of the form by the Decker family. Wahler describes this piece in her notes with "This is the best Decker ring bottle known." Exhibited: Art of Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, September 13, 2003 to January 18, 2004; Tennessee Turned, Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee 1800-1900, Museum of East Tennessee History, May 16-October 30, 2011. Literature: Illustrated in Wahler, Tennessee Turned, Earthenware and Stoneware Made in East Tennessee 1800-1900, Part One, p. 167, pl. 25, p. 221. A 3 3/4" x 1 1/4" reglued section to base. A 1 3/4" x 1 1/8" loss to base. H 15 3/4".
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