6-18-2026 4:46am

Auction 250

We are a family owned and operated auction house recognized as the leading seller of American stoneware & redware pottery in the world, and looked to as the preeminent authority on the subject. Crocker Farm is Anthony, Barbara, Brandt, Luke, and Mark Zipp, and when you contact us, you will speak directly with a member of the Zipp family.

We have been selling American utilitarian pottery since 1983 and possess an unsurpassed knowledge of the art form. As the industry leader in what we do, we hold virtually ever major world auction record and have achieved well over $50 million sold. We are based out of our historic gallery, the 1841 Gorsuch Barn, in Sparks, Maryland. (Click here to read a brief biography!)

Summer 2026 Auction Featured Photos

Selected preview photos from our upcoming Crocker Farm: America 250 auction, which begins July 22. The full auction features hundreds of lots of American pottery.

The Patriot Jar. Highly Important Civil War Era Stoneware Jar with Cobalt Decoration of a Man Carrying an American Flag, New Jersey origin, circa 1861. Featuring one of the most striking images in all of American stoneware, this jar illustrates in both its craftsmanship and sentiment why we, as Americans, collect "Folk Art." Made by an as-yet-unidentified, but prolific, potter in New Jersey, it showcases the artist's ability at conveying emotion and power with the simple potter's materials. Beyond the extravagant slip-trailing and brushwork, finely incised details, executed in a "sgraffito" fashion, delineate the figure's hair, mustache, necktie, limbs, and shoes, as well as the grass at his feet. A figure rendered in the background with raised arms could be interpreted as a Confederate surrendering.

Evocative of the Northern Union zeitgeist of the early Civil War period, the design appears to include the inscription, "HA! LXI," at the end of the flag, the Roman numerals signifying the year of the jar's creation, 1861. The use of the expression "Ha!" appears in various cartoons of the time period in essentially the same usage as today, in this case an expression of mockery toward a vanquished opponent. This jar communicates a spirit of Northern optimism that the Confederacy would be swiftly crushed in the early months of the war, prior to the disconcerting Confederate victory at Bull Run on July 21, 1861. A related surviving cartoon was issued in 1861 and shares striking commonalities with aspects of the Patriot Jar's design: The use of the word "HA" in the caption, a central flag motif, figures with raised hands in the background. Captioned "5 TO ONE HA.," the drawing portrays a scene of Southern cowardice, with five confederates running away from only one single Northerner, in this case Uncle Sam himself. In particular, the coupling of "HA" here with the unusual raised-arm figures in the background tie this drawing to the jar, and seem to indicate that at the very least a cartoon similar to it helped inspire the jar's decoration. Above all, it is clear that the potter was trying to evoke the archetypal patriotic image of a flag-bearer, boldly carrying forth the nation's colors, even at his own peril--an image with particular meaning behind it, given the role of flag-bearers in what would become a long and devastating national conflict.

Few stoneware pieces of this quality remain in private hands. It previously sold in the well-known Sotheby's Auction, The American Folk Art Collection of Don and Faye Walters in 1986, alongside the iconic Fulper, Flemington, NJ acrobats jug, which brought $28,600- a then-record price for American stoneware. The patriot jar was the second-highest stoneware lot of the sale, bringing an impressive sum of $14,300. Its bold, purely American image place it among the finest 19th century ceramic works celebrating this country. Exhibited/Literature: Regional Aspects of American Folk Pottery, May 12 to October 12, 1974, The Historical Society of York County, included in exhibit book. Provenance: Ex-Peter Tillou; Ex-Don and Faye Walters; Sotheby's, The American Folk Art Collection of Don and Faye Walters, October 25, 1986, lot 14; Ex-William Hlavin; Ex-Don Walters (second ownership). H 9 3/4".