Rare Frederick Douglass

Bidders Look To Historic Frederick Douglass Face Jug At Crocker Farm

SPARKS, MD. — Cataloged as “highly important,” a circa 1895 face jug incised “The Hon. Fred Dougless” by J. A. Roberts of Cookeville, Tenn., was the highlight of Crocker Farm’s January 31 302-lot auction of the lifetime American ceramics collection of Carole Carpenter Wahler. 

The salt-glazed stoneware harvest jug had front and reverse spouts and a tree branch-form handle in addition to the hand-modeled and applied face. The catalog noted that the maker’s mark was exceptionally large and it featured an impressed price — “25 CTS” — “a rarely-seen treatment suggesting this piece may have been displayed for sale at a local event.”

The 11-inch-high jug was considered to be Roberts’ masterwork, made to commemorate abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and it is one of the finest to come out of Tennessee, according to the catalog. Soaring beyond its $25/40,000 estimate, an advanced folk art collector won the historic jug for $90,000, including buyer’s premium. More results to come in a later review.

Crocker Farm, Inc. is a family business, owned and operated by Anthony and Barbara Zipp and their three sons, Brandt, Luke, and Mark. Anthony and Barbara began collecting and studying American stoneware in 1977, and began selling it in 1983. They have handled thousands and thousands of pieces of antique American stoneware and redware since that time.

Brandt, Luke, and Mark Zipp all have B.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, where they each graduated with multiple honors and were inducted into the nation's premiere scholastic honors society, Phi Beta Kappa. All three brothers grew up handling numerous pieces of American stoneware and redware from a very young age, and in this way their knowledge in the field has been said to be unmatched.

We have spent hundreds of hours conducting original research on American stoneware and redware potters in original, period sources, such as census records, city directories and newspapers. New information brought to light through our research includes ground-breaking revelations on New York City stoneware; Baltimore, MD stoneware and redware; the long-sought origin of "H. Myers" stoneware; important findings on the history of the prolific Remmey family of American potters (of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore); significant contributions to the study of Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC stoneware; new findings in the areas of Shenandoah Valley pottery, Midwestern stoneware, and many more. In March 2010, Brandt revealed that Thomas Commeraw, the famous Manhattan potter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was actually a free African American, and his book on Commeraw's remarkable life, Commeraw's Stoneware: The Life and Work of the First African-American Pottery Owner, was released in September 2022 to widespread acclaim. These are just a few of the important contributions we have made to the field of American utilitarian ceramics.

Our auctions have seen some of the highest prices ever paid for American stoneware and redware. In addition to numerous outstanding highlights, the David Drake jar in our Summer 2021 auction sold for $1.56 Million: the World Auction Record for American pottery! That auction was also the highest-grossing stoneware auction of all time, taking in over $3.1 Million.

World auction records held by us include:

$1.56 Million. The World Auction Record for American Pottery! (Summer 2021 auction).
(This also includes the World Auction Records for David Drake pottery and South Carolina / Southern stoneware.)

$600,000. World Auction Record for Anna Pottery and Illinois Stoneware (Summer 2021 auction).

$483,000. World Auction Record for American Salt-Glazed Stoneware (October 2015 auction).
(This also includes the World Auction Records for Baltimore / Maryland pottery.)

$480,000. World Auction Record for New York Stoneware (Spring 2020 auction).

$264,000. World Auction Record for New York City Stoneware (Fall 2022 auction).

$252,000. World Auction Record for New Jersey Stoneware (Fall 2020 auction).

$204,000. World Auction Record for Virginia Stoneware (Spring 2023 auction).

$180,000. World Auction Record for Massachusetts Stoneware (Spring 2021 auction).

$177,000. World Auction Record for Ohio Stoneware and an American Face Vessel (July 2019 auction).

$144,000. World Auction Record for Pennsylvania Stoneware (Spring 2022 auction).

And many more.

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