The lug-handled churn, labeled “Kentucky 1836” in cobalt script, is the earliest known marked piece of Kentucky pottery. It was decorated with a cobalt flower sprig and ornamental crosshatch incised square containing the numeral 8, to denote its capacity in gallons. Its neck, just below the flared rim, was stamped “I Thomas” for Isaac Thomas, a potter working in and around Maysville and Lexington from approximately 1834 to 1876.
The buyer was the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.
Case also set a new auction record for Tennessee potter Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861), selling a slip and copper oxide decorated redware jar stamped “C.A. Haun” for $36,800 to a private collector.
A red-glazed jar by San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Anthony Edward Tony Da, decorated with hummingbirds and inset with turquoise stones, measuring just 6 1/2 inches tall, soared to $35,650 (est. $4,000-$6,000), also a record auction price for that Southwestern potter. A private collector purchased the little jar.
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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
