Rare sgraffito glazed red earthenware plate with tulip and two flowers, John Neis (1785-1867) Upper Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, dated 1823

Surface incised: 1823

Jacob Paxson Temple, Tanguy, Pennsylvania
The Anderson Galleries, New York, "Temple Collection," January 1922, lot 1420
Alfred B. Maclay, New York
Asher J. Odenwelder Jr., Easton, Pennsylvania
Hattie K. Brunner, Reinholds, Pennsylvania
John Gordon, New York
Christie’s New York, The John Gordon Collection of Folk Americana, January 15, 1999, lot 233 (mistakenly attributed to Jacob Medinger in sale catalog)

"250 Years of American Pottery," The Wilton Historical Society, Wilton, Connecticut, 1970

Guilland, Harold F, Early American Folk Pottery, Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1971, p. 271 (Index of American Design watercolor illustration, N.Y.C. Cer. 97)
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 149, fig. 113A

Both plates are in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

These two earthenware plates were made by Pennsylvania German potters working in close proximity to each other during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. While differing in the decorative glazing used to ornament their surfaces, the layout and placement of the individual decorative elements of their patterns are similar, illustrating one of the traditional, preferred compositions repeatedly produced by not only potters but a number of other craftsmen working in various mediums within the Pennsylvania German community. Such patterns, which often include a central urn, flower, or geometric shape from which vines, flowers, and sometimes birds emerge in symmetrically balanced compositions, are often referred to as a "tree of life." The versatility of this balanced pattern lent itself easily to the round format of plates, and its basic elements were also frequently utilized by scriveners and fraktur artists, decorative painters, needleworkers, cabinetmakers, carvers, and blacksmiths. While several potters are known to have made plates bearing the pattern seen in the sgraffito-decorated example dated 1823, it is virtually identical to pieces attributed to John Neis. An undated plate of almost identical pattern in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was acquired from descendants of the potter.¹ Its glaze, clay character, thickness, and surface crazing are virtually identical, and the atypical, finely spaced, small coggling pattern finishing its edge is present on both examples. The slip-decorated plate bearing the date 1808 shows marked similarities to the work of John Leidy II of Pennsylvania.²Its masterful, thinly drawn slip decoration is unusual in that it is raised and sits atop the yellow slip coating of the plate. Slip decoration of this type was usually rolled or pressed into the surrounding clay body by the potter after it was applied. Leidy's raised slip technique suggests the potter's comfortable familiarity with the properties of his glaze and slip materials and a full understanding of how they would react during firing. Apprenticed to his uncle, potter John Leidy I (1764-1846), the younger Leidy took over the pottery in Franconia Township by 1800, and by 1820 he expanded the operation to include six active kilns, a clay and glaze mill, and two potter's wheels. -J.L.L.

¹ Ibid., p. 190, fig, 87, Morris and Edwin Arlee Barber acquired the PMA plate from the grandniece of the potter. While several earlier collectors and former owners felt that it had been made by Jacob Medinget (1886-1932) of Montgomery County, Pa,-- who was known to have produced intentional copies of earlier plates and other forms-- the clay, glaze, style of incised work, and attributes of age do not closely match his other known copies. Hattie Brunner, one of the early owners of the PMA example, owned a number of Medinget plates among her extensive redware holdings, and this connection may have led to the earlier confusion and misattribution to Medinger.
² See ibid., p, 178, fig. 48, for a similarly patterned plate attributed to John Leidy I.