Crocker Farm concluded its multi-consignor summer catalog sale coined America 250 on July 31. The top lot (catalog cover lot and Lot #1) was a Civil War era stoneware jar with cobalt decoration of a man carrying an American flag, ca. 1861, New Jersey origin, selling for $312,000. This is the fifth highest price achieved at auction for American salt glazed stoneware, reported Mark Zipp of Crocker Farm. An ovoid jar, nearly 10 inches tall, footed base, flared collar, and arched lug handles, the slip-trailed design of an odd appearing mustached man with flowing hair and bow tie, confidently striding across the vessels front with an American flag, buttons on figures shirt and distinctive stripe on pants, which are tucked into tall boots, likely identify the man as a Union soldier. Fern-like brushwork fills the ground at the mans feet. A second small figure emerges from behind a rock or tree stump in the background, raising his arms in surrender. Unusual added details carved into the cobalt slip in a rare sgraffito-style are visible within the central figures hair, bordering his face, accenting his mustache and large bow tie, and delineating his arms and fingers. This same treatment appears throughout the plants at the base of the design. The highly expressive nature of the decoration is compounded by the scenes imposing size, covering most of the jars front, with the large flag continuing onto the vessels collar. Within the canon of American ceramics, the Patriot Jar embodies everything that excites American folk art collectors. Made by an as-yet-unidentified potter very likely in New Jersey, it showcases emotion and power. Evocative of the Northern Union zeitgeist of the early Civil War period, the design appears to include the inscription, HA! at the end of the flag, followed by the Roman numerals, LXI, signifying the year of the jars 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 an opponent, depicted as the figure raising his arms in the background of the scene. 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 Southern 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 Jars design, including the use of the word HA in the caption, a central flag motif, and 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 jars 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 nations colors, at his own peril, an image with particular meaning behind it, given the role of flag-bearers in what would become both a devastating and lengthy national conflict. This jar previously sold in the Sothebys auction, The American Folk Art Collection of Don and Faye Walters in 1986 for $14,300. Appropriately included in the firms America 250 sale, this cover lot realized a staggering sum and went to a folk art collector wishing to remain anonymous. It had been exhibited in Regional Aspects of American Folk Pottery, May 12 to Oct. 12, 1974, at then Historical Society of York County, and included in exhibits catalog. For additional information and online catalog with prices realized, visit www.crockerfarm.com. Image courtesy Crocker Farm.