Shenandoah Valley Redware Highlights Crocker Farm Ceramics Show and Auction

Crocker Farm, York, Pennsylvania

by Karl H. Pass

The Zipps of Crocker Farm, Inc., Ryderwood, Maryland, added something new for their ceramics auction, held March 8 in the Old Main Building at the fairgrounds in York, Pennsylvania-a show and sale. Renting tables for $100 apiece, dealers in antique and contemporary pottery could set up in the empty half of Old Main the day prior to the auction, during preview hours, and the morning of the auction. "Everybody said they were happy and would be back," said Anthony Zipp of the 32 participating dealers.

Every dealer interviewed hoped that the show would continue to supplement future auctions. Most said business had not been overly good, but exhibitors enjoyed seeing old friends and spending time with the other pottery collectors/dealers who set up.

Popular and highly skilled contemporary redware potters Greg Shooner and his wife, Mary Spellmire-Shooner, of Oregonia, Ohio, had a booth and sold very well. The Shooners, who do not do special orders, have a large following of collectors. "I did very well and probably sold eighty percent of what I brought," commented Shooner after the show. "This was a great opportunity to spend time with other pottery enthusiasts," further remarked Shooner, who didn't do a mailing for the event.

Several collectors of contemporary redware said they were pleased to see him at the show and enjoyed talking with him in a relaxed atmosphere. Because of the high demand for their products, it is often a frenzied grabfest at most of the craft shows where the Shooners sell.

George Browning III of Swanzey, New Hampshire, who shared a booth with Jack McMackin of Stow, Massachusetts, offered some early New York and New Jersey stoneware, including a very large Crolius washbasin and an early miniature crock incised "Joseph Morgan" and likely by the Morgan family. It used to belong to the late, well-known collector Barry Cohen of New York City.

Contemporary potter Jeff White had a booth of his wares, including face jugs, flowerpots, and replica Shenandoah Valley pottery. He has a permanent booth at the Black Angus Antiques Mall in Adamstown, Pennsylvania.

As for the 320-lot auction, it boasted a wide selection of material, including John Bell redware and stoneware and Baltimore, western Pennsylvania, and South Carolina stoneware and brought in a total of $439,512.75 (including buyers' premiums). Just under 20% of the sold lots went to eBay Live bidders.

The auction's top lot was an early straight-sided stoneware jar incised with a standing figure of a bearded man with a top hat and coat with impressed buttons (est. $25,000/50,000). Extending from the man's mouth are the words, "I have shit/ my trowsers but/ that['s] nothing," and incised below along the base is "Bill Remey." Human figures on pottery are rare, and it sold for $63,250 to a phone bidder.

The jar was the first lot in the auction and one of ten lots with a reserve. Of the ten reserved lots, seven did not sell, reconfirming that the market resists reserves, particularly in an uncertain economic climate when dealers are not moving inventory and many collectors are on the sidelines.

A grouping of John Bell pottery brought decent prices, thus pleasing the collectors of Bell's work. Bell pottery has proven to be a cyclical market and, like most antiques, not fully resistant to downward pressure in market prices and popularity. One case that has not helped in recent years was the counterfeiting scandal involving now-arrested Cheri Stauffer and the production of fake pottery (see M.A.D., April 2004, p. 11-A).

Regional material, particularly Shenandoah Valley redware, sold well, and two Virginia museums acquired major pieces for their collections. A 7" high redware cornucopia-form wall pocket from Winchester, Virginia, signed in script "Anthony W. Bacher/ 1879" but with a repair to a crack in the tail of the cornucopia, sold for $35,650 on a left bid to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2005. At Sotheby's sale of the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Deyerle, held May 26 and 27, 1995, it was lotted with another nearly identical example, and the two sold for $2587.50 to collectors Jim and Julia Kappler. They sold it privately to the Crocker Farm consignor several years ago as part of a large collection of predominantly Shenandoah Valley pottery.

The museum made two other purchases. It spent $25,875 on a rare redware pitcher and washbowl set attributed to J. Eberly & Co., Strasburg, Virginia. It was in good condition and reportedly came from a 60-year midwestern collection. Another important acquisition from the same collection was a very rare 7¾" diameter Shenandoah Valley redware plate decorated with alternating green- and cream-colored slip-trailed floral designs separated by crossed manganese chain links. Very likely made circa 1890 in Strasburg, it cost $25,300.

The Lyceum, Alexandria, Virginia's history museum, bought three pieces of stoneware for its important collections. "These particular pieces were all interesting to us, especially the water cooler, which was high on our list," remarked The Lyceum's director, James Mackay.

The four-gallon straight-sided cooler that the museum bought for $15,525 was made by "B.C. Milburn" and had extensive slip-trailed floral decoration. The dots on the foliage were quite unusual, and the form itself is not common for the Alexandria potter.

Milburn worked at the Wilkes Street Pottery for china merchant Hugh Charles Smith and made stoneware with his own mark and with the mark "H.C. Smith." Seven known coolers presently exist, four with the stamp "B.C. Milburn" and three stamped "H.C. Smith." According to Mackay, this is the first example of a Milburn slip-trailed piece acquired by the museum. The Lyceum also paid $2012.50 for a circa 1845 17" high "H.C. Smith/ Alexa/ D.C." stoneware ovoid jar with some restoration and $4485 for a "B.C. Milburn/ Alexa" stoneware milk pan.

Instead of having a 450-lot spring sale and a 450-lot fall sale in 2008, the Zipps will have three 300-lot sales this year. Their next auction is scheduled for July 19, and another will coincide with the fall Burk and Cohen York show, likely to be held the first Saturday of November.

For more information, contact Crocker Farm at (410) 337-5090; Web site (www.crockerfarm.com).

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