The decorator is believed to be James Reiley
This exceedingly rare and important four-gallon stoneware crock was recently found in an estate in Maine; it was made at the Norton Pottery in Bennington, Vermont.
The decorator is believed to be James Reiley, who is known for his quirky birds. His signature design elements are dots, dashes and fronds. Reiley worked in Lansingburgh, Troy and West Troy in New York, as well as in Bennington.
The freehand cobalt decoration depicts a very rare rooster or bird design. This composition is not found in the Bennington Museum’s extensive local stoneware collection. This bird is not found in Steven B. Leder and Fred Cesana’s book, The Birds of Bennington, 1991. We know of a closely related composition [less elaborate] in a private Vermont collection.
The decorator was an itinerant, also producing cobalt designs of a similar skill at the circa 1840-1860 business owned by William E. Warner (1810-1896) in West Troy, New York. The most iconic example of this decorator’s production in West Troy is perhaps a six-gallon crock that is elaborately decorated with a heavily detailed scene of a lion standing in a jungle, owned as part of Adam Weitsman’s Collection at the New York State Museum in Albany.
Item Date: Circa 1850’s
Measurement: Height: 11.5”
Material: Stoneware
Item Condition: Good condition, “V” shape crack [hairline] to back.
Literature: William C. Ketchum, Jr., Potters and Potteries of New York State, 1650-1900: Second Edition, 1987; Warner working in Albany, p. 191, Warner’s business in West Troy, pp. 209-210, 212-219. Warren F. Broderick and William Bouck, Pottery Works: Potteries of New York State's Capital District and Upper Hudson Region, 1995; information regarding James Reiley, pp. 101-108. For a related bird made in West Troy, see Crocker Farm Auction, Nov. 2, 2013, lot 214.
Price: $16,500
SKU 1511-6
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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