Glazed red earthenware slipware plate with bird on branch Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1800-1840

George Horace Lorimer, Philadelphia
Parke-Bernet Galleries, "Fine American & English Furniture Collected by the Late George Horace Lorimer," March 29-April 1, 1944, lot 449
Mabel Renner, York, Pennsylvania
Pennypacker Auction Center, Reading, Pennsylvania, "Renner Collection," November 1958, lot 568
Dr. and Mrs. Henry P. Deyerle, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Sotheby’s New York, "The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry P. Deyerle," May 26-27, 1995, lot 625

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 138, fig. 59

Old, tiny scratch to surface.
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.

Simple, unadorned plates and more lively slip- or sgraffito-decorated plates, pans, and deep dishes-the staple products of most rural Pennsylvania potteries-were made in great numbers and various sizes. Combining slab-built, molded, and thrown techniques, the potter making such a plate first prepared a mound of refined clay by kneading and wedging it to remove any air pockets. He beat or rolled the clay into a flat sheet, approximately 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick, and with a disc cutter, a wooden measuring tool similar to a long-armed compass and point, he cut a round disc of the proper diameter.¹ If the form was to be left undecorated, or if it was to be ornamented with sgraffito decoration, the disc, while still malleable, was pressed and shaped over a domed, convex plate form-made either of fired clay or of turned wood-on the potter's wheel and trimmed on its edge, thus creating the dished shape of the plate. It could then receive an overall simple lead glaze or a contrasting colored slip and incised sgraffito motifs. If the plate was to receive slip decoration, the liquid slip was trailed on the flat clay disc with a slip cup. Once this decoration was set enough not to smear or run, the disc was further rolled while flat or turned over on the form and pressed until the applied slip was forced into the surface of the clay. This helped ensure the slip decoration would remain integral with the clay during firing. Once shaped on the plate form and trimmed on the wheel, the edge of the finished form could be decorated using a ridged, rotating coggle wheel, which produced the serrated edge common to most redware plates. While some earthenware plates and shallow pans were raised completely by hand on the potter's wheel, the majority of potters preferred sheet-drape molding, which allowed for more efficiency and speed in the production of multiple plate forms, This Pennsylvania slip-decorated plate shows a close relationship in glaze, slip color, and clay character to southern Connecticut examples and was likely made in one of the Quaker-owned potteries operating in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Business ventures and family connections between these Pennsylvania operations and the Quaker-owned potteries in Essex and Bristol Counties of Connecticut brought an exchange of trained potters, local clays, and glaze materials between these two pottery centers, and such ties probably led to the shared stylistic preferences and physical similarities.²-J.L.L.

¹ An example of this tool-and several others discussed in this entry-from the pottery of Pennsylvania potter David Haring are in the collection of PMA.
² Lura Woodside Watkins, Early New England Potters and Their Wares (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968), pp. 62-79.