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News Article
Van Brocklin collection to highlight Kimball Sterling sale
By Eric C. Rodenberg

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Three 40-year-plus collections will comprise the highlights of a New Years Day Kimball M. Sterling auction that features early liquor advertising pieces and seldom-seen Southern pottery.

Sterling personally knew all three consigners, and had done business with them for years, he said. The auction begins at 11 a.m. on Jan. 1, at Sterling’s auction facility at 125 West Market St., Johnson City. About 500 lots will be sold. It is one of the auctioneer’s largest sales of the year.

The lifelong pottery collection of Dr. Ralph Van Brocklin, who was an internationally known expert in “Great Road Pottery” includes pieces from early pottery sites in Wythe and Washington counties in Virginia and Sullivan County in Tennessee.

Among Southern pottery collectors, Great Road pottery is highly prized, according to Sterling. The Great Road was the name given to a section of the primary route from Philadelphia west through Tennessee, according to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum.

As early as 1780 there were silversmiths, gunsmiths, cabinetmakers, clockmakers and, of course, pottery. During the next 70 years, major pottery centers existed along the Great Road in Wythe and Washington counties in Virginia and Sullivan County in Tennessee. In the year 1860, there were 18 potters in the southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee area, according to the Institute’s website at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Virginia www.ferrum.com

“We’ll have whiskey jugs, particularly those from southwest Virginia and Bristol, Tenn., that should bring $500 to $1,000; then we’ll have bottles that bring $50 or even, $10. We’ve got jugs, many of them rare because most of them got broken over the years, from Ohio, California, Pennsylvania and all over, but the Southern jugs is where the money is,” Sterling says. “And we have plenty of those. We have a lot of cobalt-designed jugs, many of them with tulips and other ornamentation.”

Early jugs from Memphis, Tennessee, with company names inscribed into them prior to final firing in the kiln, will be sold. Highly desirable pottery by Charles Decker, the German-born potter (1832) who established Keystone Pottery in 1857, near Johnson City, will be featured from the Van Brocklin collection.

Decker, who was a master potter, made crocks, jugs, churns and canning jars, in addition to also turning pitchers, large lawn ornaments, flowerpots, decorated inkwells and many odd and unusual pieces.

Also, from the Van Brocklin collection, is a rarely-seen store display, measuring about 18 inches tall, of Cracker Jack mascots Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo. The pair were introduced as early as 1916 but didn’t become a trademark until 1919.

Also of interst to pottery collectors will be several examples from 19th century Michigan potter Thomas Gaffney.

Early paper and advertising items will be offered from the Don and Shirley Kay Collection, a 40-year collection that brings to the auction early die cut advertising, pottery, country store, Americana, Palmer Cox brownies, World War II posters and many unusual items.

Complementing the auction will be the 60-70-year bottle collection amassed by Charlie Green. “We have bottles of all types from southwestern Virginia. Again, some of them will bring $500-$1,000, some will bring much less. But, there’s a lot of highly desirable bottles including Bristol Liquor bottles, Spider Web bottles and Chattanooga Medical Bottles.”

Contact: (423) 773-4073

www.auctionauction.com

12/9/2018
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