Friday, September 16, 2011

Ancient Fossil Pottery Flask Visits South Coast Antiques & Gallery

Today we had a Mr. Randy Rowan came into South Coast Antiques & Gallery to show us a pottery flask that had recently been found in a ditch in the neighboring town of St. Martin, MS.

Ancient Fossil Pottery Flask

 He said that he had shown it to a number of people and that no one in the area could tell him anything about it. Well, both myself and my business partner both agreed that it was not very old, we believe it is probably from around the 1960's through the late 1980's or so. It was more than likely an old arts and crafts show type piece. The one thing that we all three agreed on was that this piece is really a cool piece.

Ancient Fossil Pottery Flask  Size 6 Inches


When I first examined it I looked at the glaze, looked at the clay, and looked at the wear. I was able to quickly ascertain that it was not very old even though at first glance it appears to be old. The funny thing is that I did not even notice what the design was until it was brought to my attention. How embarrassing for me! This is a great piece. I just wish I could tell Mr. Rowan who made this piece of pottery! If anyone that sees this piece knows anything about the maker of this pottery flask please contact me.

Ancient Fossil Pottery Flask  Reverse

 
2 August 2016 UPDATE to the
September 16, 2011post

Here are two images that were supplied by a reader recently, after he stumbled across our post.



This piece has what looks to have an original custom made iron stand for the flask.  We have still not been able to identity where and exactly when these pieces were made. They may have been created to sell at a gift shop at a site related to dinosaurs or they may have been just some type of whimsical thing that was created for the interior design market that were sold in places that sold home decorator items. It is hard to say. 

The few flasks like this that I have seen over the years, were all are made from the same heavily grogged clay and have a small round chip in the same location on the side, where I think they were stilted in the kiln during firing.  This one has a slightly different design, showing that there were obviously more than one mold created to make these flasks.  Although I would not put a great monetary value on them, they do have an appeal that makes them stand out because of their just being so different and unexpected find.

Please, if you have any information on these flasks please contact us and let us know. we would appreciate any info as to where or when you saw one of these interesting items.


4 comments:

  1. Dear mr Moses I'am not an expert on antique, but found a similar flask to the one you have above. Please email me then I can send you a picture at mullerml@telkomsa.net
    Thank you, Marius Muller.

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  2. Here is a third one from me. Any new info?

    http://s1244.photobucket.com/user/pikchar/library/temp?sort=3&page=1

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    Replies
    1. Hello Kakto Idae,
      Thank you so very much for sharing your images. We have found nothing about these pieces. as stated in the blog post they are obviously of modern manufacture, that being probably made after the 1950's.
      They just have the quality and feel of being some type of item made for sale at some type of dinosaur related gift shop. We still find them to be very interesting pieces of pottery. We may find out more information about them tomorrow, or next week, or never it is really difficult to say, but when and if we find out we will post the information on the blog. The stand that yours is on is one thing that we have not seen before. It looks as if it is custom made and original to the piece. It adds a lot to the overall presentation of the pottery. I can say now seeing images of your piece that the small ding that you show in the one close up images is definitely not damage, but is more than likely a stilt mark from where it was fired in the kiln. The other pieces that we have seen have had a similar mark in the same location. Thanks you for contacting us. Would you mind if we add your images with credit to you on the blog?

      Michael W. Moses,
      South Coast Antiques

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  3. Could it be from one of these sets?

    http://www.southwestandbeyond.com/Clay-3-piece-Pottery-Set-p/80253.htm

    Hope this helps. We found it trying to find information on similar sets with suns, moons and fishes.

    ReplyDelete