Rare Three-Gallon Cobalt-Decorated Stoneware Jar, attributed to Abraham Mead, Greenwich, CT, circa 1790, ovoid jar with footed base, tooled shoulder, and open loop handles, decorated with a graduated group of cobalt spots on both sides. Cobalt highlights to handle terminals. Provenance: A fresh-to-the-market example, purchased by the consignor decades. Mead attribution corroborated by Killingworth, CT dealer, Lewis Scranton, who acquired related examples directly from the Mead family. A crack across underside, extending several inches up body of jar on front and reverse, forming a Y on one side. A tight horizontal crack to one side. Heavy chipping to base. In-the-firing iron pings to one side.