Potters For The North Carolina Pottery Center

Seagrove Potters for Peace:Turning Stoneware into Schools

2010-08-13T07:22:00.002-04:00

24 potteries will hold a sale of specially signed vessels to help Greg Mortenson build schools in impoverished areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan as a long-term solution to terrorism. (Sorry - no early sales!)

Each pottery will produce a unique item, specially signed for this event. The pottery will be for sale at the individual shops on Saturday, August 14 from 9am to 5pm. There will be no early sales, but any remaining items can be ordered by email or telephone on Monday, August 16. Some potteries will also have copies of Mortenson's books for sale.

See a complete list of our potters and their donations.

Coastal Carolina Clay Guild

2010-07-14T06:47:00.002-04:00

NC Art Pottery Orange-Red Glazes -- Chrome? Uranium? A Touch Of Gold Dust, Perhaps?

2010-05-12T07:17:00.002-04:00

by Jay Henderson

Did North Carolina potteries use uranium oxide glazes in the pre-WWII art pottery era? For a long time many students of North Carolina art pottery have held that they did, but this author has been unable to find any verifiable example of such a glaze. There are many examples of chromium oxide red-orange glazes, of course, and the colors of these glazes can be very similar. However, chromium oxide is not radioactive -- uranium oxide is, even in a glaze -- and chromium oxide does not glow under ultraviolet light, while uranium oxide glazes often do fluoresce in the presence of UV light.

About a year ago, North Carolina pottery collector Peg Wiebe mentioned that she had used an ultraviolet light on pottery -- this can be used to detect repairs, for example. Intrigued, I did some reading and found that UV light can induce fluorescence in certain minerals, including uranium oxide. Cazart! A means to test the assumption that North Carolina potters used uranium oxide glazes! However, neither Peg Wiebe nor I have, so far, found a pre-WWII orange or red glaze which responds to UV light.

So why did most North Carolina potteries discontinue chrome red glazes after WWII? One assumption had been that the orange-red glazes couldn't be made once the U. S. government monopolized the supply of uranium oxide during WWII. Not so, it appears. Part of he answer may be changes in consumer preferences -- the 1940s and 1950s saw a shift to pastels and the 1960s a shift to rustic glazes. Probably more important was the necessity to adopt economies of scale in the post-war era in order to survive against competition from factory-made and imported wares.

Chrome red glazes are restricted to earthenware fired to Cone 08 or below, with Cone 010 being typical, and a finishing temperature of no more than 1750 degrees F. Above that temperature, chromium oxide changes to a green color in a lead glaze. (Exposure to a reduction atmosphere during firing will also turn the glaze black.) This firing range is much lower than the North Carolina potters used for earthenware and far below the Cone 3 (more or less) temperatures achieved at the J. B. Cole and A. R. Cole operations. Thus, chrome red pottery would have to be fired by the entire kilnload -- and that became economically impracticable as consumer tastes changed.

THE GOLD DUST MYTH

One persistent myth is that J. B. Cole Pottery used gold dust in its pre-WWII chrome red glazes. I can identify the source of this myth -- it came from Waymon Cole, who had an impish sense of humor and foisted the gold-dust story off on me in my gullible youth. Not until four decades later, when I began to take pottery classes at a local community college and studied clay and glazes, did I realize that Waymon had been pulling my leg. Gold is used in ceramics, but its use is very limited, partly by its volatility when heated to high temperatures and partly by its expense.

Consider this: in the late 1920s, the price of gold ran $21 per ounce -- about $260 per ounce in today's money. J. B. Cole's Pottery mixed its glazes in huge lots -- clawfoot bathtubs, for example. The cost of mixing in enough gold dust to have an effect on the finished glaze would have been prohibitive. Granted, chromium oxide isn't cheap, but at about two bits to a buck a pound, it was much more affordable than gold dust.

I cannot, of course, eliminate either possibility -- that some NC art pottery glazes contained either uranium oxide or gold dust. But in the absence of evidence, one must presume that neither was used. If anyone finds a vintage NC art pottery glaze that fluoresces under black light -- please send me pictures!

THE HISTORY OF URANIUM GLAZES

Uranium oxide added to a lead-fluxed glaze produces a spectrum of bright, attractive colors ranging from ivory, yellow, and orange to deep orange-red, depending on the amount added and the other characteristics of the glaze composition. The dark orange-red versions of uranium glazes are often spotted or streaked with black or cream-colored areas.

The glazes were very popular during the pre-WWII art pottery era and remain popular with collectors today - - good examples bring premium prices, especially for deep red pieces, even though this glaze is among the most available from that time. While uranium oxide has recently become available to potters once more, restrictions on the use of lead are likely to preclude the return of the lead-uranium glazes found on vintage art pottery pieces.

Although uranium glazes had been developed long ago (written formulas survive from the mid-19th century), they were not widely used until the 1920s. Following the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, pitchblende was mined and processed for its very small radium content (about one gram of radium per three tons of pitchblende), resulting in the production of many hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium oxide compounds as by-products. These by-products were sold inexpensively for various uses, including glass and ceramics, until World War II. "Vaseline glass" made during the Depression era uses uranium oxide to produce its green hue.

Uranium pottery glazes were used commercially until 1943, when the supply of uranium oxide was monopolized by the United States government during the development of the atomic bomb. A familiar example is the "Fiesta" line produced beginning in 1936 by the Homer Laughlin Company of West Virginia, which used uranium oxide to make Fiesta Red and Fiesta Ivory glazes. The J. A. Bauer Pottery Co. in California reportedly used 450 pounds of sodium uranate per week during the 1930s.

The color of the finished glaze is determined by the amount of uranium oxide added to the base. Sodium uranate was the most common form of the oxide used by potteries. Because uranium oxide remains in a refractory state and does not contribute to the fluxing of the glaze, it can be added in relatively large amounts. Depending on the other constituents, lead-fluxed glazes would be colored yellow by additions of 5% to 10% sodium uranate by weight; orange by additions of 10% to 15%; and red by additions of 15% to 20%.

Finally, uranium oxide remains radioactive even when melted in a glaze. It can be detected with a real Geiger counter (not one of the yellow civil defense models; those are not real Geiger counters) and sometimes by the use of ultraviolet light. The response to the Geiger counter or "black light" is weakest for ivory and yellow versions, and strongest for the deep orange-red glazes. (Note that not all uranium glazes respond to a "black light.")

Is vintage uranium-glazed art pottery safe? Probably, as long as you don't use it to decant acidic substances such as orange juice, which will leach both lead and uranium from the glaze. A few pieces of uranium-glazed pottery in a collection are unlikely to be hazardous, although a large number in an unvented room might be; see the References for articles on this subject. Ironically, the most radioactive ware was Fiesta Red made by Homer Laughlin from 1959 to 1972, using depleted uranium which the Atomic Energy Commission had made available for commercial use; depleted uranium is far more radioactive and toxic than sodium uranate and resulted in glazes that produced radon.

* * * * * *

Treasure Chest - Three Mountaineers Pottery

2010-05-10T07:17:00.003-04:00

By Jay Henderson

Revised 5/10/2010
Updated 5/15/2010

The Treasure Chest of Asheville, North Carolina, and its successor firm, Three Mountaineers, Inc., was a well-known seller of "mountain pottery" from the mid-1920s through the mid-1930s. So how much of this "mountain pottery" was actually made in the mountains of North Carolina? As far as I can tell, very little of it. The "Sunset Mountain" line came from J. B. Cole's Pottery in the North Carolina Piedmont. Some pottery was produced by Pisgah Forest Pottery in the late 1920s. The remainder of the pottery wares seem very likely to have been made by Cornelison Pottery in central Kentucky.

Note: Click on any image in this article for a larger view. Scans of pages from 1929 Treasure Chest catalog were provided by Peg Wiebe.

Hugh C. Brown, Edwin Brown and W. H. Lashley were partners in the original Treasure Chest venture in 1925 or 1926, operating out of Brown's Hardware in downtown Asheville. Local retail sales soon took second place to a two-pronged marketing strategy in which Treasure Chest goods were sold in wholesale lots by means of a print catalog and also by driving truckloads of goods to trade fairs and distribution outlets.

Why the partners chose the name "Treasure Chest" is unknown. Published research on the operation is sketchy and sometimes obviously inaccurate. The images of pirates and buried treasure were popular at the time, even in Appalachia, very distant from the beaches and islands of the Atlantic (there was a Treasure Island firm operating in Washington County, Virginia, for example). Despite its name, Treasure Chest marketed its wares primarily as "mountain" crafts. The contradiction was resolved in 1932, when the three men incorporated Three Mountaineers, Inc. The new business absorbed the Treasure Chest and another craft-marketing operation, The Log Cabin.

There is little doubt that Hugh C. Brown had a genius for marketing crafts in general and pottery in particular. I speculate that Hugh Brown's untimely death in 1938 lead quickly to the extinction of the pottery lines. Edwin Brown had died young in 1933 but had not been known as a mover and shaker of the marketing end of the business. After 1938, W. H. Lashley ran the business, concentrating on hand-made furniture and other wooden items until the business closed in 1992. Included among products sold by Three Mountaineers, Inc., was a wooden-bound book, "Just Cocktails," which was reprinted several times, and a popular run of illustrated spice racks which still trades actively on the secondary market.

Contrary to some reports, Three Mountaineers, Inc., remains a legally-registered and active company. The records of the North Carolina Secretary of State show that the business was incorporated on May 30, 1932, and that its status is "Current-Active." The company's Annual Report filed on August 16, 1991, described its business as "manufacturer of furniture and decorative accessories." The annual report filed on July 16, 1992, reported, "Company in process of liquidation -- remaining assets are real estate only." Subsequent filings advised that the business was in a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization proceeding. By 1998, Three Mountaineers, Inc., described its business as "leasing corporate assets."

SUNSET MOUNTAIN POTTERY

The relationship between Treasure Chest - Three Mountaineers and J. B. Cole's Pottery is well-documented. J. B. Cole's Pottery began supplying wares marked as "Sunset Mountain Pottery" to Treasure Chest in 1929 and the arrangement continued through 1935. Part of Hugh Brown's marketing genius was the choice of suggestive names -- in the 1920s, Sunset Mountain on the north side of Asheville was nationally famous as the situs of the exquisite Grove Park Inn. Thus "Sunset Mountain Pottery" took advantage of instant name recognition and apparently was quite profitable for both the Cole and Brown operations. The 1929 Treasure Chest catalog insert described the wares as "quaint hand-turned pottery from the 'Hill Country' of Carolina."

The oft-repeated romantic version of the origin of Sunset Mountain Pottery holds that, during the Great Depression, a down-on-his-luck Hugh Brown sought out J. B. Cole and offered to buy pottery on a consignment arrangement in order to keep Brown's Hardware and J. B. Cole's Pottery out of insolvency. In fact, the Brown-Cole arrangement was made early in 1929 and the Treasure Chest catalog introducing Sunset Mountain Pottery was issued in July, 1929, at which point the Dow Jones average was still on its upward climb, industrial production was high, and farm prices were stable -- all indicators of continued prosperity. The Black Tuesday stock market crash of October 29, 1929, was unanticipated. It seems more likely that Hugh Brown and Jace Cole were kindred spirits, savvy Backcountry businessmen who took a liking to each other and saw advantage in the arrangement.

All Sunset Mountain Pottery appears to have been made at the Cole shop in the Auman's Hill - Asbury community in the northeastern corner of Montgomery County, quite a jog from the mountains where Asheville lay. The forms and glazes of marked pieces provide many close matches when compared to the 1932 and 1940 J. B. Cole catalogs. Because the Sunset Mountain Pottery marque is by far the most prolific of the J. B. Cole's Pottery contractual arrangements prior to World War II, surviving pieces are found with some frequency and have been of great value in establishing the characteristics of the pottery's output in the early North Carolina Art Pottery era.

Yet, ironically, embedded in this arrangement is a very rare mark -- a characteristic Cole stamp which reads "Treasure Chest Pottery." Very few pieces so marked are known to exist and the likelihood is that this was a short run. Why the "Treasure Chest Pottery" stamp was used is not known, but I speculate that it may have been an attempt to keep the Treasure Chest name alive after the formation of Three Mountaineers, Inc. Presumably it was soon established that the "Treasure Chest" imagery was inconsistent with the "mountain pottery" theme and this line was abandoned. The characteristics of the few surviving pieces with this stamp establish that they were, like the Sunset Mountain line, made by J. B. Cole's Pottery in North Carolina.

According to Rodney Leftwich, an authority on Western North Carolina pottery, Pisgah Forest Pottery near Arden, NC, made pieces for the Treasure Chest during the late 1920s. There are at least three different base stampings - The Treasure Chest in block letters, Pine Tree stamp worded Pine Tree and Treasure Chest, and an identical Pine Tree stamp without the Treasure Chest wording. These are pictured in Leftwich's book, "Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah, the Potteries of Walter B. Stephen." I do not yet have illustrations of these pieces but will add them when I can.

JUNALUSKA UNGLAZED POTTERY

Another line sold by Treasure Chest was "Junaluska" pottery, unglazed terra-cotta ware intended primarily for outdoor use. The illustrations for this pottery were line drawings by W. H. Lashley, which are far less useful for identification of surviving pieces than the photographs used to illustrate the Sunset Mountain and other lines. The intended use of Junaluska ware in outdoor settings most certainly led to a high rate of loss, probably reducing the numbers of intact pieces by 50 per cent every five years. Nonetheless, the illustrated forms and the description of the clay tends to be consistent with the assumption that "Junaluska Unglazed Pottery" was made in central Kentucky.

The "Junaluska" name illustrates Hugh Brown's marketing genius. Members of the Hilton family, located in the mountains of North Carolina, had begun producing a line of "Cherokee Indian" pottery in the early 1920s. The Hilton line used a heavy terra-cotta clay and was glazed on the inside. Junaluska was a renowned Cherokee leader who is buried in North Carolina, where a mountain and a lake are named for him. The choice of the name thus produced a high degree of immediate recognition and invoked a similarity with the Hilton product. However, numerous examples of the Hilton "Cherokee Indian" line survive and I have yet to see one which compares closely with Junaluska pottery market by Treasure Chest. On the other hand, some of the line-drawing illustrations do closely resemble other Treasure Chest lines which can be traced to the Cornelison family pottery in Bybee, Kentucky. Compare, for example, IMAGE 8, No. 325, with IMAGE 9, below, Nos. C8 and C18.

CUMBERLAND MOUNTAIN "HAND TURNED BLUE POTTERY"

The 1929 Treasure Chest catalog describes Cumberland Mountain "Hand Turned Blue Pottery" as having been made "by an old mountain potter." The name of this line traded on the familiar "Cumberland" name, although a precise location is not given -- it could have been in Tennessee, or Virginia, or Kentucky, all of which share the Cumberland range. The actual provenance of this "Hand Turned Blue Pottery" was nowhere in the Cumberland Mountains range and has been reliably established as the Cornelison family pottery in Bybee, Kentucky.

In recent years, a revival of interest in Kentucky Art Pottery has resulted in museum exhibits and publications, including a reprint of the 1924 Cornelison Pottery catalog, which provide a reliable means for authenticating unmarked pieces. Prior to changing its name to Bybee Pottery in 1952, Cornelison Pottery marked some of its output with a round stamp but left many pieces unmarked. Beginning in the early 1920s, Cornelison produced a line of pottery glazed in "Bybee Blue" which was not marked with the Cornelison Pottery stamp. Many of these pieces are found with the glaze left intact in the center of the bottom of the pot, glaze having been cleaned around the rim before firing. This method of glazing made Bybee Blue pieces flattering imitations of a popular line of cobalt-blue-glazed pottery manufactured by UHL Pottery in Indiana. Cornelison "Bybee Blue" pieces are occasionally offered for sale as UHL, but the UHL Pottery products were molded and thus should be readily distinguishable from the hand-turned Cornelison output.

A comparison of attributed Cornelison "Bybee Blue" pieces with the 1929 catalog photographs of the Treasure Island "Cumberland Mountain" line reveals a high degree of similarity. The two "Bybee Blue" vases shown in IMAGE 9, above, are very close matches to Cumberland Mountain Nos. C5 and C6, illustrated in IMAGE 8. I have also seen a C1 glazed in "Bybee Blue."

The Cornelison Pottery vases shown in IMAGE 10, above, are close matches for Cumberland Mountain Nos. C7 and and C11 shown in IMAGE 8.

The large "Bybee Blue" pitcher illustrated in IMAGE 11, above, matches up with Cumberland Mountain No. C12. The handle formation and attachment on this vase; another just like it, not illustrated; and the C11 vase shown above, all are characteristic of a single potter and are consistent with handles on marked Cornelison Pottery pieces.

The three pots shown in IMAGE 12, above, are all marked or verifiable Cornelison Pottery pieces. The two-handled vase in the center is a close match for Cumberland Mountain C19 and is finished in a well-known Cornelison Pottery "Butterscotch" glaze.

"LOG CABIN GREEN" POTTERY

Attribution of the Treasure Chest "Log Cabin Green" line is less certain but the evidence appears to weigh in favor of Cornelison Pottery as the source. Another central Kentucky art pottery, Waco Pottery, produced a well-known line finished in a "Log Cabin Green" glaze. This glaze had a tendency to matte, however, and Cornelison had its own green glaze.

The "Log Cabin Green" line probably did not sell as well as the Cumberland Mountain "Blue," and it may be that some of this output is attributed mistakenly to Waco Pottery. There is no direct overlap of Cumberland Mountain and Log Cabin Green in the forms illustrated in the 1929 Treasure Island Catalog. Nonetheless, I have seen "Log Cabin Green" forms No. 356, No. 372, No. 374 and No. 375 glazed in "Bybee Blue." The small green pitcher illustrated in IMAGE 12 is the same form as Junaluska No. 314 and is marked with the round Cornelison Pottery stamp. Although the line-drawing illustrations of the Junaluska pieces makes comparison less exacting, there are similarities between the two lines; compare Junaluska No. 319 with Log Cabin Green No. 354.

The conclusions reached in this article are, as always, subject to revision in light of new information. At this time, the evidence is conclusive that J. B. Cole's Pottery produced the stamped "Sunset Mountain Pottery" and "Treasure Chest Pottery." The available information weighs in favor of Cornelison Pottery having produced the unmarked Junaluska, Cumberland, and Log Cabin Green lines sold by Treasure Chest -- Three Mountaineers, Inc.

* * * * * *

UPDATE -- May 15, 2010

The following information has been provided by Jerry Nichols of Lexington, Kentucky:

Wow, that's pretty exciting here in Kentucky. We figured it out about 1998 after Robert Brunk published his "May We All Remember Well.." in which he published the "Log Cabin Green" and "Cumberland Blue" pages and attributed them to the North Carolina potters. I haven't had many people to tell from your area. There is a new book on Kentucky pottery about to be published--June 2010---titled "Clear as Mud" that tries to clear up some of the confusion.

"Log Cabin Green" was indeed produced by the Waco Pottery and "Cumberland Blue" was produced by the Cornelison Pottery. The shapes match the old catalogues. However the "Junaluska Pottery" was not made in Kentucky. The shapes do not match and the "Ring Jug" is clearly a North Carolina piece. These jugs were never made in Kentucky.

There is much more to the story. Cornelison's Pottery is the oldest continuous operating pottery west of the Allegheny's and this fact has created a huge amount material. I have done 10 years+ research myself along with others and the Eastern Kentucky University located in Madison County. Cornelisons/Waco was sold early on with Jugtown and Pisgah, according to my Allanstand Catalogue from the 20's, and the Pennland catalogue circa 1940, available on line, has mostly a lot of Ky pottery shown. The Madison County potteries may have numbered up to 40 and have been here because of large natural deposits of the "Irvin Clay" which is also well written up on the the internet. And a lot more.

This confirms the Kentucky origin of the Cumberland Mountain Blue and Log Cabin Green pottery lines sold by The Treasure Chest. The Junaluska line remains unattributed.

New exhibition at The North Carolina Pottery Center

2010-04-29T13:04:00.003-04:00

NCPC Auction this Sunday

2010-04-19T09:45:00.001-04:00

Celebration of Spring in Seagrove

2010-04-17T07:17:00.001-04:00

Celebration of Spring in Seagrove offers chance to chat with potters old and new

Mary Anderson

April 15, 2010

12:00 a.m.

SEAGROVE — This weekend is the time to celebrate Spring in Seagrove. The second annual spring celebration will give you the opportunity to take a drive through scenic pottery country while you visit 50 workshops and studios to see the newest creations in the largest concentration of working potters in the United States.

You can’t see them all in two days, of course, but you can visit your favorites shops and stop in to meet potters you haven’t met before. The potters look forward to this weekend as much as the visitors because they like to have time to meet and chat with their customers.

“I just love this time of year,” said Blaine Avery at Avery Pottery and Tileworks. “Everything is blooming and I’m putting the finishing touches on all the pots I spent the winter making.”

Avery has been painting dozens of pots from the salt kiln and new ash glazed pots and pottery turtles and snakes.

Susan Greene, potter and publicist for the Seagrove Area Potters Association (SAPA), said the potters were coming together to create an eventful weekend with something for everyone.

“We are working together for the good of the community,” Greene said. “Spring has always been a time for renewal and awakening in Seagrove and this year an unprecedented number of shops are opening their doors together to celebrate spring with special events.

“It’s a great weekend to come out and leisurely browse, shop and experience a 200-year-old tradition, see the process, develop and renew relationships with the potters of Seagrove.”

A variety of events are scheduled throughout the weekend including loads of beautiful new pots fresh from the kilns, door prizes, refreshments, turning demonstrations and raku firing.

At Cady Clay Works, Beth Gore and John Melage are having an “open house” to show off their new works of clay “houses.”

“We have spent some time this winter exploring this theme and designing colorful clay bird houses, candle lantern houses and house wall collages,” Gore said.

Like most of the participating potters, Cady Clay Works will offer refreshments and studio tours. This weekend is a special opportunity to find most of the potters “at home,” and to get to know the person who made pottery you will take home to use and display.

Seagrove pottery is all locally made, non-toxic and oven, dishwasher and microwave safe. Ask most any of the potters for their favorite recipes and they will probably have a copy on hand.

Greene said the Celebration of Seagrove Potters is a gathering of “diverse clay artists joining forces to showcase the traditional and contemporary pottery of the historic Seagrove community. The goal is to maintain the authenticity of Seagrove pottery by working together in a community effort to promote the historical, educational and artistic aspects that can be experienced when visiting Seagrove, and to draw customers to the shops to have a first hand Seagrove experience.”

The King family plans to their annual wood-fired kiln opening on this weekend with rare and special pieces from the wood-fired salt glazed kiln.

“Visitors can gather around the kiln site with us to share in the freshly unloaded wares fired traditionally, just the way potters would have hundreds of years ago,” said Crystal King.

Face jugs by Terry King and animal figures by Crystal King will be the highlight.

Several potteries will have guest craftsmen and potters at their shops. At Whynot Pottery this year, Mark and Meredith Heywood are also hosting Anne Raven Jorgenson from Raven Pottery with her intricate geometric and floral designs and Laura Avery from Snow Hill Tileworks.

Descriptions of events and more details about every participating potter can be found at www.DiscoverSeagrove.com.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters was formed in 2008 and merged that year with the Seagrove Area Potters Association, a non-profit corporation whose purpose is to promote, publicize and market the Seagrove Area Pottery Community and its tradition.

When you approach Seagrove from any direction, stop at any participating shop as you come into town to pick up a map of the area and listing of events. The brochure gives you a snapshot of work from every participating pottery.

Participating shops include:

A.R. Britt, Avery, Ben Owen, Bluemoon/Ole Fish House, Blue Stone, Bulldog, Cady Clay Works, Cagle Road, Caldwell-Hohl, Chad Brown, Crystal King, Dean & Martin, DirtWorks, Dixieland, Dover, Fat Beagle, Fireshadow, Frank Neef, From the Ground Up, Great White Oak Gallery, Hatfield, Hickory Hill, JLK Jewelry, Johnston & Gentithes, Jugtown, King's, Kovack, Lantern Hill, Latham's, Luck's Ware, Lufkin, McCanless, McNeill’s, Nichols, Old Gap, Ray, Rockhouse, Seagrove Stoneware, Smith, Studio Touya, The English Potter, Thomas, Tom Gray, Triple C, Turn & Burn, Village, Westmoore, Whynot, Wyndham & Brookehaven.

The Celebration of Spring is on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18. Saturday hours may vary slightly from shop to shop, but they are all open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. On Sunday, some open at 10 a.m., but all are open from noon until 5 p.m.

Celebration of Seagrove Potters Kiln Openings April 17-18

2010-04-08T20:02:00.002-04:00

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

2010-03-24T07:34:00.004-04:00

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has invited Pittsboro-based potter Mark Hewitt to create an installation of 12 of his large ceramic pots on the museum's front lawn. "Mark Hewitt: Falling into Place" will be on view for several months starting February 11, 2010.

For nearly 30 years, Hewitt has drawn inspiration from Asian and West African ceramics, and the native North Carolina potting traditions of Seagrove and the Catawba River valley. Hewitt digs the clay, mixes his own glazes and fires in a wood burning kiln on his property. For this installation, the artist selected pots from his own collection, four private collections and the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington.

" 'Falling Into Place' describes my love affair with North Carolina and its venerable ceramic heritage," Hewitt said. "Finding this tradition was a little like an English guitar player discovering the blues."

The installation was conceived by Sarah Schroth, the Nancy Hanks Senior Curator at the Nasher Museum.

"Mark Hewitt is an internationally renowned potter whose work has been compared to icons, monuments and temples," Schroth said. "The huge scale of his work conveys an unmatched mastery of the medium. In this case, we are asking Mark to think like a sculptor. The daring placement of his beautiful pots with their salt glazes and incised patterns will create an organic transition between the museum's modernist architecture and the surrounding woods."

Hewitt was born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and has lived in North Carolina since 1983. He has exhibited in New York, Tokyo and London, and co-curated the exhibition "The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery" at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2005.

The exhibition is supported by Marilyn M. Arthur.

IMAGES: Detail of "Memorial to a Fetish" photo by Jason Dowdle.

The 13th annual Catawba Valley Pottery & Antiques Festival

2010-03-23T07:06:00.001-04:00

The 13th annual Catawba Valley Pottery & Antiques
Festival is scheduled for March 26 & 27, 2010, at the
Hickory Metro Convention Center in Hickory, NC
(located at Exit 125 off I-40). The Friday night preview
party is from 7-10PM and includes an early buying
opportunity with a catered Southern Supper and live
music. Tickets are $40 and must be purchased by March
19 (call 828-322-3943). Hours for Saturday are from
9AM-5PM; admission for adults is $6 and for children
12 and under, $2.
An important fundraiser for the North Carolina Pottery
Center and the Catawba County Historical Society, the
Pottery Festival focuses on Southern traditional pottery,
offering both sales and educational features. A total
of 112 dealers will be present, a mix of both
contemporary potters and antique dealers. The potters
focus on functional wares, face jugs, figurals, and forms
linked to the Southern tradition. Antique dealers will
offer pots and other items that complement and give
context to traditional pottery.
The educational component of the Festival, including
an exhibit and lecture, changes each year. For 2010
Dr. Steve Compton, a noted pottery collector and
scholar, will deliver an illustrated lecture on “North
Carolina Earthenware” on Saturday morning at 11AM.
And the exhibit will feature rare pieces of lead glazed
earthenware from across the Piedmont region of North
Carolina. Other educational events on Saturday include
a pottery identification clinic, pottery demonstrations
on the wheel, and videos about pottery making which
will be shown throughout the day.

Become a fan of the NCPC

2010-03-17T07:13:00.004-04:00

Facebook has quickly become one of the best ways to see what a person or an organization is doing.
If you are on Facebook consider becoming a fan of the following:
The Catawba Valley Pottery Festival
The North Carolina Pottery Center
North Carolina Ceramic Artist
Seagrove Area Pottery

There are many more pottery and pottery related sites.
Have fun exploring them all on facebook.

NCPC Auction Set for April 25, 2010

2010-03-08T09:56:00.004-05:00

More details to come.

The 13th annual Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival

2010-03-02T06:22:00.002-05:00

The 13th annual Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival will be held on Saturday, March 27, 2010, at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, I-40, Exit 125 in Hickory, NC from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

The Festival is a fund raising event for two non-profit institutions, the Catawba County Historical Association and the North Carolina Pottery Center. Tickets are $6.00 for adults and $2.00 for children 12 and under and are available at the door. Ticket holders will be entered into a drawing for door prizes.

Friday night, March 26, 2010 is the Preview Party from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. A southern-style supper, live entertainment, and the early buying opportunity make this a popular event. Advance tickets are required and must be purchased by March 19, 2010. Tickets are $40. No Preview Party tickets will be sold at the door. Please call 828-324-7294 for purchase information.

Do you have a piece of pottery of unknown background? Representatives from the North Carolina Pottery Collectors' Guild will be available to offer expert opinions on the possible background and history of individual collectors' pieces.

In addition to the 110 pottery and antique vendors from all over the Southeast, this year's festival will feature a pottery exhibit prepared by Dr. Terry Zug, retired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina.

The speaker this year is Stephen C. Compton, a native of Alamance County, North Carolina. Steve holds an A.B. in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.Div. from Duke University, and D. Min. from Emory University and currently is the district superintendent for the Sanford District of The United Methodist Church. He formerly served as president of the board of directors for the North Carolina Pottery Center and was a founding member and first president of the North Carolina Pottery Collectors’ Guild.

An avid collector of North Carolina pottery for nearly twenty years, Steve has assembled a group of about 1,000 pieces of pottery dating from the 18th century to the present, including utilitarian earthenware, stoneware, and art pottery. Objects from his collection have been displayed in numerous exhibits and publications. Publication of a book edited by him, North Carolina Earthenware: Origin of a Ceramic Tradition, is pending.

For further information on the Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival, please contact 828-322-3943 or
828-324-7294.

In Memoriam: Nancy Sweezy

2010-03-01T09:46:00.008-05:00

Nancy Sweezy, well known for her role in preserving the Jugtown pottery tradition, departed this life on February 6, 2010, at the age of 88.

Sweezy was already established as a potter and a proponent of folk art traditions when she came to North Carolina to run Jugtown in 1968. Her interest in the Southern pottery tradition resulted in publication of Raised In Clay - The Southern Pottery Tradition by the University of North Carolina Press in 1984. This work is an essential book for students and collectors of Southern pottery.

In 2006, Sweezy was awarded the Bess Lomax Hawes Award and a National Heritage Fellowship Award -- a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists -- by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Obituary by Raleigh Newsobserver.com -- Sweezy, 88, revived jugtown

"Museums In A Minute" NCPC Video

2010-02-02T09:56:00.002-05:00

From the N. C. Arts Council -- a one-minute peek at the NCPC:

Pottery by Phil Graves

2010-01-31T12:39:00.032-05:00

by Jay Henderson

There are many students of North Carolina art pottery who consider Philmore Graves to be among the best turners in the renowned group of masters of that genre. Many biographies of North Carolina potters begin like the Gospel of Matthew, with a lengthy recitation of the potter's genealogy, and there are those who believe that good potters are born with their abilities. Phil Graves reveals the truth of the matter - - he did not come from a family of potters, but had learned the craft as an adult, achieving mastery by applying himself and seeking to produce wares as perfect as he could make them. Certainly, there is a great advantage to growing up in a potter's household, as Waymon Cole and Nell Graves had; but there are potter's children who couldn't turn a dog dish if their lives depended on it, and the work of Phil Graves proves that it is practice, application, and the desire the achieve that make a master turner.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view

Phil Graves at his potter's wheel was as much a perfectionist as he was in other aspects of his life. His kit was simple - - a small sponge, a pan of water, a rib, and a wire. Once a sufficient number of balls of clay was prepared, Phil set to turning at a pace that few could match. He stood at the wheel, of course, and deftly centered each ball of clay. The centering was the slow part. To my young eyes, it seemed as if Phil was pulling ready-made clay cylinders from a hole in the middle of the wheel. The process of shaping was completed, then finishing touches were made to the rim and base and the piece was wired off and set aside to dry. Vase after vase was pulled magically from the wheel, each one seemingly identical to the one before and the one after. When a shape called for handles, Phil made them quickly by hand and attached them, again, so that each piece appeared to be identical to the others.

There is not a single piece of pottery known to have been signed or marked by Phil Graves, yet his work can very often be identified with reasonable certainty. In addition to some reliable attributions which can be used for comparison, there are two sources of information to assist in the identification process. First, there are the characteristics of the pots themselves, particularly those made with handles. Second, there is the 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue, a priceless resource which contains monochrome photographs of more than 500 pieces of pottery.

Finding a piece illustrated in the 1940 Catalogue is always helpful and provides at least a starting point. This publication is particularly useful because the pottery is coded to indicate the maker and size of each piece – the serial number is preceded by a letter (“G” for Graves, for instance) and is followed by a measurement in inches. Thus the code G 283-7" indicates that the form is made by Phil Graves and has a finished height of about 7 inches. See IMAGE 2, which shows examples of a dozen forms, or "shapes" as many North Carolina potters called them, made by Phil Graves identified and by their code numbers.

The 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue does not depict every form and size made by the J. B. Cole potters. Some forms made in the 1920s evidently had been discontinued; a few forms from the 1930s were omitted; and others developed after World War II of course were not pictured. The 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue alone cannot be used to date pieces, since a great many of the same forms were made in later years. Dating a given piece requires consideration of the clay, the glaze, and production characteristics such as embedded stilt points and belt-sander marks (neither of which occur on pieces made of Michfield clay).

Because Phil Graves learned to make pottery as an adult, there is a progression in the quality of his work over time. The earliest pieces are good -- he did have a gifted mentor, after all, in Jace Cole -- but his drive to always do the best job he could shows up in improved pottery as time goes on. If practice makes perfect, the high-production environment at the J. B. Cole shop provided an ideal environment for Phil Graves. By the late 1930s, he was as skilled as the other potters working at J. B. Cole’s Pottery.

The two yellow-glazed vases shown in Image 5 demonstrate the progression in Phil Graves’ skill as a turner. The vase on the left, form G 284, is stamped “Sunset Mountain Pottery” and therefore can be reliably dated to the early 1930s. The vase on the right, form G 350, is glazed in the deeper yellow normally associated with pieces made in the late 1930s. Both are made with light Michfield clay. The thinner walls of the later vase are readily apparent.

The remarkable consistency of Phil Graves’ turning can be seen in the two vases illustrated in IMAGE 6. This style of vase, form G 395-8", appears to have been very popular in the 1930s and numerous examples have survived. The vases shown here, presumably kiln-mates, are virtually identical in all respects, as are the two examples of the same form depicted in IMAGE 1, above. The differences in finished weights of these vases is less than one-half of one per cent, a difference within the tolerance permitted by manufacturers of machine-made ceramics. Phil Graves' skill at the wheel approached the near-perfection seen in the work of A. R. Cole and Dorothy Auman.

J. B. Cole pottery was well-made but the success of the business depended on both quality and quantity. The potters were capable of turning out duplicates of the same form at a rate of dozens and scores per hour, depending on the size and complexity of the form. To "have a shape" meant developing the ability to make the same form repeatedly and accurately many times. In order to produce such numbers the potters developed habitual ways of turning, altering, and handling the forms they made, to the point where pieces were made by second nature, with little or no conscious thought given to the process. These production habits reveal the “hand” of the potter – the marks left from the turning of the piece, the way in which a spout is formed on a pitcher, the methods of forming and attaching handles, and so on.

Even when two potters turn a similar form, very often the manner of handle formation and attachment provides a signature. Phil Graves developed characteristic ways of making and attaching certain types of handles which were distinct from the other potters and provide a way to confirm that he made a particular piece. Pots which are altered after they are thrown (ruffled-edge vases, pitchers with pouring spouts) provide another source of characteristic methods.

Other factors to be considered are the clay and the glaze of the pottery. Until 1938, J. B. Cole’s Pottery used light-colored Michfield clay obtained from a deposit near Seagrove in Randolph County. The primary Michfield clay bed was sold in 1938 to a drainage-pipe manufacturer and sufficient quantities were no longer available. Thereafter, J. B. Cole’s Pottery obtained its clay from a red-clay deposit near Smithfield, North Carolina. This was the same clay used by A. R. Cole and was capable of being fired to terra-cotta temperatures, where it produced a dense, vitrified clay body. The fired color of this clay ranged from orange-red to brown.

The loss of the Michfield clay turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Michfield was a stoneware clay which was used for earthenware art pottery because of its light color, which helped produce clear, bright glaze results. The loss of the Michfield deposit was upsetting to the potteries which used it but Michfield was actually a poor clay for wheel-turned pottery, being “short” and difficult to work with. Potters often mixed some orange earthenware clay with Michfield batches to make it easier to use. The Smithfield red clay, on the other hand, was superior in all respects for wheel-turned work. Smithfield red clay was very plastic – that is, easy to form – but at the same time firm enough to resist sagging even when thrown very thinly and in radical shapes.

The change from Michfield clay to Smithfield clay resulted in better pottery, not only for Phil Graves but for the other potters as well. Nell Graves turned very thin-walled pieces with Michfield clay but her work expressed in Smithfield red clay was even finer, although it may take a micrometer to measure the difference, and allowed improvements in certain pieces, such as wider, thin-walled bowls for her "chamberstick" candle-holders. Waymon Cole developed the radically-shaped "Aladdin’s Lamp" teapot, a difficult form which he could make in production quantities with Smithfield clay.
The difference in the two clays is demonstrated by IMAGE 11 and IMAGE 12. The two vases shown in IMAGE 11 are the same form, the one on the left from the early 1930s and the one on the right from the 1960s. The 1930s example is made with walls not less than 3/8 inch thick (as glazed and fired) while the 1960s example of the same form is made with walls not more than 1/4 inch thick. The difference in finished weight of the two pieces is 1222 grams and 1006 grams, respectively, a reduction in weight of about 17.7 per cent.
The two vases shown in IMAGE 12 are the same form, the one on the left from the 1930s, glazed in green and white, and the one on the right from the 1950s, glazed in turquoise. Again, the wall thickness of the older, Michfield-clay example is about 3/8 inch, and of the Smithfield-clay piece, about 1/4 inch. The finished weights are 1918 grams and 1584 grams, a reduction of about 17.4 per cent, very close to the results seen in the vases illustrated in IMAGE 11.

From the 1920s through the early 1970s, J. B. Cole’s Pottery (called J. B. Cole Pottery after WWII) used fritted, lead-fluxed glazes almost exclusively. Glazes were mixed in large batches – Jace Cole had recycled a number of claw-footed, cast-iron bathtubs to hold glazes – and the more popular colors appear on a large number of surviving pieces. The glaze results on authenticated pieces are helpful in confirming the source of other pieces which have the same glaze.

Some of the glaze batches have unique characteristics which distinguish them from similar glazes used by other potteries. Light blue and blue-green glazes often show a marked speckling of the glaze colorant. The light-blue vase depicted in IMAGE 13, above, has speckles of colorant distributed throughout the glaze; because this vase bears the "Sunset Mountain Pottery" stamp, it can be authenticated as a J. B. Cole's Pottery product from the early 1930s and this glaze when found on un-marked pieces helps to verify their source.

In the 1930s, several J B. Cole glaze colors were over-dipped with a white glaze, including blue and white, orange (chrome red) and white, green and white, and rose and white. This method of glazing was used by several potteries but the results tend to be distinguishable. At some point the J. B. Cole white glaze became contaminated with flecks of blue, presumably from over-dipping dark-blue-glazed pieces, and these flecks show up on some color-and-white combinations. This blue flecking is illustrated in J. B. Cole Rose and White Art Pottery Glaze. The large ruffled-rim cabinet vase in IMAGE 13 is glazed in green overdipped in white and it has the blue flecking, eliminating any doubt as to its provenance.

While finding a piece with an impressed stamp, such as “Sunset Mountain Pottery” or “Goose Creek,” can be helpful in identifying its origin, other stamps can pose problems because J. B. Cole’s Pottery produced impressed-stamped pottery for other Cole family potteries, including A. R. Cole’s Rainbow Pottery. The pieces made by Rainbow Pottery in Sanford, N.C., are typically stamped with a round, India-ink stamp, but there are a few surviving examples having an impressed stamp which reads “Rainbow Pottery/Sanford, NC.” Examples of the round, India-ink stamp are shown in James, North Carolina Art Pottery, on pages 77 and 167-168, and in Lock, Traditional Potters, on pages 50, 133, and 196. On page 77 of North Carolina Art Pottery there is an example of the impressed stamp, which James calls a “rare stamp.” IMAGE 15 shows a piece with the same impressed stamp; it is a form G 305 and was made by Phil Graves at J. B. Cole’s Pottery. See, for comparison, the form G 305 depicted in J. B. Cole Rose and White Art Pottery Glaze.

The proper identification of vintage pottery can be a challenge -- but this is also part of the charm of studying and collecting North Carolina art pottery. There is a definite satisfaction gained from learning the clay and glazes of a pottery and the "hand" of a potter well enough to ferret out vintage pieces. Unfortunately, the work of some of the potters of that era, including Phil Graves, has not been subjected to thorough study. I may be partial, but I believe that Phil’s work is worthy of recognition in its own right.
# # #

Text and photographs copyright 2008, 2009, 2010 by J. R. Henderson. This article is excerpted from a longer version titled Remembering Phil Graves which was published on Backcountry Notes; reprinted here by permission.

Treasures of the Earth Pottery Show & Sale

2010-01-29T10:03:00.004-05:00

Treasures of the Earth opens next Thursday at the Cleveland Co. Arts Council.

Feb. 4 – March 11; Meet the Artists Reception, Feb 4th, 5:30-7:30pm

Cleveland County Arts Council Home

www.ccartscouncil.org

111 S. Washington St., Shelby, NC 28150 - Phone: 704-484-2787 - Email: info@ccartscouncil.org

New Generation of Seagrove Potters

2010-01-24T11:28:00.004-05:00

The Seagrove area has a long and rich history of pottery and this exhibit highlights the younger potters who have made a career working in clay.
The show will run from February 12th through April 10th, 2010.
The work of the potters will be available for sale beginning February 12, at the Artists Reception from 5:30-7:30 pm.
This event is free and open to the public.

The fifteen participating potters:
Blaine Avery
Stephanie Martin
Chad Brown
Eck McCanless
Jeff Dean
Will McCanless
Samantha Henneke
Tommy Nichols
Daniel Johnston
Travis Owens
Crystal King
Hitomi Shibata
Matthew Luck
Takuro Shibata
Jared Zehmer

The NCPC will host a Demonstration Day on Saturday March 20th, from 10:00-3:00.
Plan to visit the NCPC to see featured potters, Samantha Henneke, Crystal King, Travis Owens, Tommy Nichols, and Chad Brown demonstrating at the wheel in our education building.
The NCPC is open to the public and will have a free of charge day in honor of this event.

The generous support of The Randolph Arts Guild, Ann and Monty Busick, and Seagrove Creations has helped to make the exhibit possible.

Daison Ware

2010-01-17T09:39:00.000-05:00

by Jay Henderson

Who made Daison Ware? Conventional wisdom holds that the pottery sold as Daison Ware in the 1930s and 1940s was made by various of the North Carolina Cole families, but that may not be so. Certainly, J. B. Cole's Pottery was a primary source, but there is insufficient evidence to attribute other potteries with this connection.

click on any image for a larger view

Daison Manufacturing Corporation -- sometimes incorrectly called "Daison Lamp Company" -- was a manufacturer/distributor of lamps and other housewares and was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the records of the Pennsylvania Department of State, Daison Manufacturing Corporation was a registered corporate entity from January 1, 1933, until its dissolution on October 29, 1958. The 1933 date is likely not the date of incorporation but is probably the date of the first accessible records; however, it does establish that there was a corporate existence in the mid-1930s. There is a second Pennsylvania registration for "Daison Manufacturing Company," changing the final word of the name. The reason for this duplication is unknown.

Daison was connected to the department-store trade, selling to those establishments in many locations along the Atlantic coast. The Daison label tends to be found in or near urban areas which featured department stores, such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Atlanta. Daison lamps were artistically-designed, quality products and occasionally turn up in estate collections. Photographs of two Daison lamps are currently available on the Smithsonian Institution's CollectionsSearchCenter. During the 1930s and 1940s, Daison purchased pottery which it labeled as "Daison Ware" and sold as part of its department-store line.

Left: J. B. Cole's Pottery vase, by Waymon Cole, blue-and-white glaze

The connection between J. B. Cole's Pottery and Daison Ware is well-established and was attested by Waymon Cole in later years. The exact dates of the J. B. Cole - Daison Ware arrangement are unknown, but the best evidence would make it from the mid- to late-1930s through the mid- to late-1940s. It may be that the Daison account came after the Sunset Mountain Pottery arrangement with Treasure Chest/Three Mountaineers ended in 1935.

The relationship turned out to be the salvation of both J. B. Cole's Pottery and Daison Manufacturing. During World War II, metals which Daison used to make its lamps became difficult to purchase, owing to the demands of armaments production. Coin collectors are familiar with the "steel cents" made by the United States Mint in 1943 when, because of the use of copper for shell casings and other military needs, the Mint coined one-cent pieces on zinc-coated steel blanks for a year. The copper shortage meant a brass shortage, and brass was then as now a primary material for the making of lamp bases. Daison turned to J. B. Cole's Pottery for the production of ceramic lamp bases -- and it was this contract that saw both Daison and J. B. Cole's through the war with business intact. While J. B. Cole's Pottery had made lamp bases prior to this time, they are fairly scarce items prior to the Daison arrangement in WWII.

Right: J. B. Cole's Pottery cream pitcher, by Philmore Graves, turquoise glaze.

Unlike Sunset Mountain and other contract arrangements, the Daison Ware name was not stamped into the pots. Instead, paper labels were glued to the base of each piece. There are numerous examples of Daison Ware labels still in existence. Some of these labels are virtually intact, others are remnants, and undoubtedly some of the labels were washed off or otherwise removed over the years. The labeled pieces are they key to attribution of Daison Ware.

Many students of North Carolina art pottery had attributed Daison Ware pieces both to J. B. Cole's Pottery and A. R. Cole Pottery. However, one of my correspondents, North Carolina collector Peg Wiebe, mentioned last year that she had not seen a Daison Ware piece which she would credit to A. R. Cole. Peg Wiebe has seen a lot more A. R. Cole pottery than I have and knows it well. My interest whetted, I began making comparisons where I could, and concluded that she was correct -- A. R. Cole did not make Daison Ware.

To begin, I looked up the A. R. Cole "Daison Ware" piece in Lock, Traditional Potters, and saw immediately that the attribution is wrong. The vase illustrated in Lock (see image on left) is not an A. R. Cole piece but instead is a Nell Cole Graves form, N47-8" as illustrated in the J. B. Cole 1940 Catalogue (see image on right, below). Lock's 1940s dating is right, since J. B. Cole's Pottery had switched to the Smithfield red clay after the Michfield clay bed was sold in 1938. However, the glaze is not a lead-rutile glaze, but a green overdipped with white.

Other examples of Daison Ware mis-attribution came to light. For instance, a Rebecca pitcher sold at auction in 2006 is attributed to A. R. Cole but is unmistakably the work of Waymon Cole. A large vase sold at auction in 2007 provides another such example. Another piece, a pitcher with applied decoration, is consistent with the forms shown as W108 and W 109 in the J. B. Cole 1940 Catalogue. (This attribution requires thanks, again, to Peg Wiebe for her sharp eye and excellent memory.) By comparison, there are numerous examples of Daison Ware which correspond to J. B. Cole pieces, including this vessel, a form G308 (1940 Catalogue) glazed in rose-and-white. My working conclusion at this point is that Daison may have purchased pottery from more than one source, certainly including J. B. Cole, but not from A. R. Cole.

In his introduction to North Carolina Art Pottery, Everette James wrote, "Knowledge about North Carolina art pottery is an evolving process. A 'truth' widely accepted today may be dismissed tomorrow in light of new data." So it goes with Daison Ware pottery. Given the nature of such contractual arrangements -- the potteries made pieces by the truckload for delivery to such customers -- it is only reasonable to expect that there would be a good number of surviving examples. There are so many examples of J. B. Cole pieces sold under this label that the connection is unassailable. The same cannot be said of A. R. Cole wares.

# # #

Text and images (excluding excerpts from The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, North Carolina, by Robert C. Lock, and from the J. B. Cole's Pottery 1940 Catalogue) copyright 2010 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes. Reprinted by permission.

North Carolina Pottery Jugs, Jay Henderson

2009-12-02T06:28:00.001-05:00

Jay Henderson, of Backcountry Notes, writes another great article on NC pottery.
This time he explores the North Carolina Jug, one of my favorite forms.
Take the time for a good read and some great pictures.

North Carolina Art Pottery Pitchers

2009-11-15T19:14:00.001-05:00

By Jay Henderson

Pitchers and jugs are my favorite forms of art pottery -- and I include along with pitchers, cream and sugar sets, which provide a pitcher plus a bowl. Bonus. If a potter "sees me coming," he or she will place a few colorful pitchers at eye level. I actually use some of them, mostly for watering plants and other low-risk tasks, although most of these illustrated live in display cabinets or on high shelves. Right: Long-necked pitcher attributed to Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery.

Click on any image for a larger view.

When Jugtown Pottery kicked off the North Carolina art pottery movement in the early 1920s, its owners focused on two lines of ware: traditional lead-glazed "dirt dish" earthenware and new, colorful pieces based on oriental designs. Potters in the surrounding area observed no such strictures; whether by genius or by serendipity, they used colorful art-pottery glazes on anything that went into the kiln, pitchers included. The pitchers sold and, some nine decades later, they still sell.

Above: Green earthenware pitcher made by M. L. Owens, Seagrove area, North Carolina

The form and finish of the art-pottery pitcher demonstrates the range of the skills of the maker: the turning of the body; the formation of the spout; the attachment of the handle; and the selection and application of the glaze. As with other forms, each potter tends to develop characteristic methods which help to identify the maker even when a piece is unmarked -- and there a many unmarked, vintage pieces.

Left: The Rebecca Jug is also known as the Rebecca Pitcher. This example by Joe Owen illustrates the essential elements of the pitcher -- rounded on the lower body, necked in above, a widened rim shaped to form a spout, and an added handle.

As a utilitarian form, pitchers were made by all traditional potters, both in earthenware and stoneware. However, while a straight-sided vessel with a minimal spout and a plain handle would have been sufficient for the purpose, these working potters showed a high degree of artisanship in the making of such items. This may have had a commercial impetus -- a nice-looking pitcher would fetch a penny more than a plain one, perhaps -- but it also reflects the desire of many makers to turn pots which had a touch of artistry.

Pictured above: the genuine article -- a redware pitcher "slicked" with a clear lead-fluxed glaze. This example, with an ice lip, was found in North Carolina, maker unknown. It displays a simple elegance of form and function. The colors in the glaze are from impurities in the clay, rather than deliberate decoration.
When salt-glazed ware came to dominate the pottery trade during the 19th century, it was often fired green and plain, any embellishment being provided by the effects of the wood fire and the occasional kiln drip. Sometimes potters would decorate their pitchers and other utilitarian items with designs in cobalt oxide brushed on before firing. Cobalt oxide retains its blue color at the high temperatures needed to mature stoneware and cobalt sulfate, a water-soluble form, could be brushed on to decorate greenware without requiring a bisque firing. The examples shown above are modern interpretations of 19th-century forms, made by David Farrell of Westmoore Pottery.

During the 1930s, two markets developed for art pottery pitchers -- so-called "tourist pottery," small-to-medium sized pieces turned and fired in quantity for the tourist-shop trade, and small pieces made for the soap-and-candle enterprises, also made in wholesale lots and marketed in gift shops as well as tourist stops. Pitchers in the form of small creamers were easily adaptable to both markets. At right, an example of a small creamer outfitted with scented wax and a wick, then boxed for retail sale -- in this case, by the well-known Carolina Soap & Candle Makers of Southern Pines, North Carolina. On the left, a pair of tourist-pottery creamers. The very small "left-handed" cream pitchers were usually sold in Virginia as "Williamsburg Hand Made Pottery." The larger creamer may have been sold to any one of many tourist shops and resorts, often in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia or the vicinity of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Although the tourist-pottery trade generally called for glossy lead glazes colored with ceramic oxides or "stains," the candle-makers had a preference for matte or semi-matte lead-rutile glazes. These glazes were initially purchased commercially from a firm in New York City. Of course, the potters in the Old North State didn't hesitate to use such glazes on other forms, and lead-rutile mattes were quite popular until the Federal restrictions on lead content eliminated them in the early 1980s. At right, a pitcher by Thurston Cole of C. C. Cole Pottery glazed in a blue lead-rutile matte glaze.

While some Seagrove area potters still produce earthenware art pottery, the
modern era has seen a return of stoneware to dominate the market. Some stoneware is fired at moderate temperatures -- Orton Cone 6 or 7 -- but most of it is cranked up to Cone 10 or Cone 11, exceeding 2400 degrees F. So while the lead-rutile mattes are gone, in their place have come varieties of stoneware art-pottery pitchers -- some wood-fired, some with exotic glazes, some propane-fired in reduction. Shown at left: a tall, elegant, polychrome-glazed pitcher by Benjamin Burns, Great White Oak Pottery in Seagrove, North Carolina; illustrated for perspective beside an M. L. Owens cream pitcher.

Above: Earthenware pitchers from the modern (post-1980) era of Seagrove Pottery; on the left, M. L. Owens Pottery, and on the right, J. B. Cole Pottery (by Linda Potts).

Three decorated stoneware pitchers from Whynot Pottery, located in the community of Whynot near Seagrove, North Carolina.
Two views of a vintage polychrome-glazed pitcher by Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery. The colored lead glazes in this piece have run and blended to give a unique result to the finished piece. C. C. Cole Pottery workers applied a whitish body glaze, then dribbled bands of color around the body, and finally dipped the top of the piece in another colored glaze.
Above: Four pitchers by Phil Graves of J. B. Cole Pottery. The two in front are from the 1930s, made with Michfield light clay; the two in back are post-WWII, made with Smithfield redware clay.
Two modern-era pitchers glazed in green. Left: made by Vernon Owens, Jugtown Pottery. Right: made by Mark Heywood, Whynot Pottery.Above: Ice-water pitcher with lid, Seagrove Pottery "Crystal Blue" glaze, made and glazed by Walter Auman and marked with the date "1976." Walter formulated Crystal Blue in the early 1970s, following the first imposition of Federal restrictions on lead-glazed pottery. The result was a soft, semi-matte finish, lighter in tone than the lead-rutile matte blue previously used by Seagrove Pottery and C. C. Cole Pottery. At its best, Crystal Blue was a beautiful glaze, but it had some problems -- it was subject to gross crazing and often was porous, which made it unsuitable for tableware. In the 1970s, many buyers of North Carolina
pottery put their purchases into use -- including the author, who had no inkling what "mint" examples would come to be worth! Left: Walter Auman (standing) and Seagrove Pottery apprentice, whose name has escaped me, photographed by your author in July of 1976 in their tent on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., while participating in the Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival.

A later reformulation of Crystal Blue produced a very similar glaze which produced a variegated semi-glossy finish. Known as "Stone Blue," it is attractive and popular in its own right, although it lacks some of the softness of Crystal Blue. The reduction of the lead oxide content of glazes was typically accomplished by substitution with some boron oxide, which is suitable for firing at earthenware temperatures but is inherently glossy. When further reductions in lead oxide content were mandated in the early 1980s, semi-matte and semi-glossy lead-rutile glazes were no longer practical.

One of the more remarkable glazes produced by J. B. Cole Pottery was "Dove," a temperamental glaze from the 1970s and early 1980s which came out very well on these two pitchers. "Dove" gave varying results from one kilnload to another, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter, sometimes more blue and sometimes more gray. It was used in limited quantities and is relatively scarce.
Two cream pitchers by M. L. Owens. The yellow creamer on the left is inscribed "Owens" in Melvin's hand. The one on the right is from a cream-and-sugar set bearing a paper label attached by a purchaser indicating the origin to be C. C. Cole Pottery. The glaze is consistent with C. C. Cole and the blue creamer may have been glazed and fired there, but it bears the unmistakable "hand" of M. L. Owens -- including the characteristic spout formation and an out-of-round rim having identical placement and degree in both cases, as shown in the inset. Potters often turned wares for other shops; M. L. Owens is known to have made pieces for Jugtown.
Two views of a tall J. B. Cole Pottery wine pitcher made by Phil Graves and glazed in a Bronze-Green finish. There were several iterations of Bronze-Green, which was produced by over-firing aqua or blue-green glazes.
Two small blue pitchers. Left, by General Foister Cole, Sanford, North Carolina. On the right, by Pisgah Forest Pottery, Arden, North Carolina. Pisgah Forest pieces were made with a porcelainous stoneware clay which required a very high finishing temperature; the glaze is nearly always crazed to some extent.Blue stoneware pitchers by Mark Heywood, Whynot Pottery, Seagrove area. Blue is so popular with buyers and thus is produced in such quantities that potters often become sick of looking at it and begin muttering dark threats about its demise.

Long-necked pitchers made by Dorothy Auman at Seagrove Pottery and glazed by Walter Auman. Like C. C. Cole Pottery, Seagrove Pottery made polychrome-glazed pieces but with a different color palette and application pattern. The blue pitcher on the right is from the 1980s and shows the impact of removing lead from the glazes -- the boron oxide content mandates a glossy finish.

NOTE: A longer version of this article with many more pictures is available on the author's Web site -- click HERE to read and view.

# # #

Text and images copyright 2009 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes. Reprinted by permission.

Reception Friday night

2009-11-10T04:48:00.000-05:00

A Reception will be held Friday night from 6-8 pm for the

"Fire in the Valley: Catawba Valley Pottery Then and Now"

Come out and meet the artist and take a tour through the museum and browse through the gift shop.

The Reception is free and open to the public.

Exhibitions

2009-11-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

November 10, 2009 - January 30, 2010
"Fire in the Valley: Catawba Valley Pottery Then and Now"
Artist Reception: Friday, November 13, 2009 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Free to the public

February 6, 2010 - April 10, 2010
"New Generation of Seagrove Potters"
Artist Reception: Friday, February 12, 2010 5:30-7:30 pm
Free to the public

March 2010 - Saturday, April 24, 2010
Annual Auction on Exhibit Gallery III

Saturday, April 24, 2010
Annual Auction: "Going, Going, Gone to Pots"
Auction Time: To be announced

May 4, 2010 - July 31, 2010
Buncombe County Historical & Contemnor Pottery
Artist Reception: Friday, May 7, 2010 6:00-8.00 pm
Free to the public

August 10, 2010 - November 13, 2010
Hiroshi Sueoyshi & The Coastal Carolina Clay Guild
Artist Reception: Friday, August 13, 2009 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Free to the public

Save the date and make a trip to Seagrove

2009-11-05T19:42:00.000-05:00

NC Art Pottery Rebecca Jugs

2009-10-09T04:45:00.001-04:00

By Jay Henderson

The Rebecca jug is an enduringly popular form of North Carolina art pottery. The "Rebecca" got its name from illustrations of the Biblical story of Rebecca at the Well (in Genesis, Chapter 24). The classic shape of the Rebecca is that of an ewer (a vase-shaped water jug) with an elongated, over-arched handle. While single-handled pieces are the norm, there are also large two-handled ewers known as "Double Rebeccas." Right: Joe Owen Rebecca on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Note: click on any image for a larger view

Although not unique to North Carolina art pottery, the Rebecca jug developed a strong association with the Tar Heel State during the 1930s, when many tens of thousands were made for customers, the tourist trade, and resorts. The 1932 J B Cole catalog listed three Rebecca jugs in sizes from 10½" to 17½", while the 1940 catalog lists six Rebeccas ranging from 4½" to a monumental three-footer. Much of the production of Rebeccas was unmarked, even by potters who normally stamped their wares, because these pieces often were moved in wholesale lots.

Left: Rebecca jug by Waymon Cole, 1940s. Identification of vintage Rebeccas can be a challenge because so many of them were unmarked. Nonetheless, there are typical elements which can help to identify the maker. Small, mid-sized, and some large Rebeccas usually have a pedestal base with a rolled bottom edge, a rounded body, a tapered neck, and a rim with a spout, plus the handle. Some larger Rebeccas were made without the pedestal base. Points to observe include the thickness and height of the pedestal, the shape of the body (ovoid, semi-ovoid, or rotund), the length and taper of the neck, the width and flare of the rim, the shape of the spout, and the formation and attachment of the handle.

Right: Double Rebecca attributed to J. B. Cole, 1930s. The potters who made these wares depended on high rates of production for their living. The numbers they turned out are quite remarkable in comparison to modern studio art potteries; C. C. Cole Pottery, for example, produced small wares (honey jugs, cider jugs, Rebeccas, and so on) at the rate of five thousand to ten thousand per week during the peak season. The need to produce such numbers meant that the turners developed routine, characteristic ways to make the pots. For example, in the case of Rebeccas, there are three options for the top handle attachment: on the outside of the rim; on the inside; and straight on. Once a potter established his or her routine, it was followed faithfully to produce many pieces which share common traits.

Left: Rebecca jug by Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery, 1950s. Glazes offer another means of identifying vintage Rebeccas. A pottery would use the same glazes for Rebecca jugs as it did for other forms, so that becoming familiar with a particular shop's range of glazes and glaze results helps to narrow the possibilities. Certain glazes were used by more than one pottery -- the lead-rutile matte glazes, for example -- but even so there can be differences in the end result. A. R. Cole Pottery fired its red-clay wares to a higher temperature than most others, for example, producing lead-rutile glaze results that are glossy and highly variegated. For another example, C. C. Cole Pottery's polychrome glazes are as familiar on its Rebeccas as on its honey jugs and cider jugs.

Above: Early Rebecca jugs dating to the 1930s. The backswept handle seen on the jug on the far left was used during the early 1930s but was abandoned possibly because it required too much space in the kiln compared to upright and overshot handles.

The Rebecca jugs shown above all are attributed to C. C. Cole Pottery (although I am open to persuasion as to the gray jug on the far right, back row). The Rebeccas on the back row are attributed to Thurston Cole and on the front row to Dorothy Cole Auman.

This image shows the handle attachment (on the outside of the rim) and spout formation typical of C. C. Cole wares. The neck of Rebeccas made by Thurston Cole is thicker than is seen on those made by Dorothy Auman.Rebecca jugs by Joe Owen. Note the short, thick pedestal, ovoid body, thick neck, and moderate rim flare, plus straight-on handle attachment. The overall look of Joe Owen Rebeccas is stout, whether in a small or a large size.

Above: These four Rebeccas are very similar in form, but differ in certain details. The two on the left are from A. R. Cole Pottery; the two on the right are from C. C. Cole Pottery, by Dorothy Auman. There are characteristic differences in the formation of the pedestal, the shape of the body (the A. R. Cole Pottery pieces are more rotund), and the shape of the spout. The Rebecca on the top left was probably made by Neolia Cole.Rebecca jugs glazed in Brown Sugar and Tobacco-spit glazes.
Contemporary Rebecca jugs by Larry Moore, Moore Pots Pottery.
Contemporary Rebeccas by (left) Terry King, (right) Matthew Nance
Vintage C. C. Cole Pottery Rebeccas on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

# # #

Craft in America

2009-10-06T09:47:00.001-04:00

This will be a wonderful event which will affirm the continuing importance of North Carolina in shaping the
ceramic heritage of America.

To celebrate this event, there will be a series of simultaneous “viewing parties” in towns and cities across the state, with key patrons of the Pottery Center hosting these parties, inviting friends, pottery enthusiasts, and NCPC supporters, to view the broadcast and eat dessert.

Most of the Pottery Guilds around the state, all the way from the coast to the mountains, will also be hosting parties to benefit NCPC, inviting guild members and pottery lovers in their respective communities. It is a truly grassroots effort.

In addition, the Umstead Hotel in Cary has very kindly offered to host a Gala viewing party in Cary that night. The evening has been described as, “A big collective hug for all North Carolina potters and pottery lovers!”

Our goal for this fundraising campaign is to raise $100,000, with $50,000 for the Umstead event, and $50,000 from all the other statewide events combined. As an incentive, Mark Hewitt has offered to give the person who raises the most money at their viewing party (with the exception of the Umstead event), one of his fabulous garden planters!

This is a great opportunity for North Carolina potters and pottery lovers to come together and support the North Carolina Pottery Center, so please contact NCPC, or look at the list below, to find out exactly where you can attend one of these parties.

GALA EVENT
The Umstead Hotel and Spa, Cary, NC
http://www.theumstead.com/
Please contact NCPC for more information.

PATRON PARTIES
These are being held in Edenton, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Asheboro, Winston-Salem (Triad), Charlotte and Pittsboro.
Please contact NCPC for more information.

GUILD PARTIES

Coastal Carolina Clay Guild, Wilmington, NC
. Contact: Hiroshi Sueyoshi mailto:suey1@earthlink.net?subject=Oct.

North Carolina Pottery Collectors Guild, Raleigh, NC
Contact: Susan Myers mailto:rfkps@mindspring.com?subject=Oct.

Durham Clayworks, Durham, NC
Contact: Emily Cox mailto:emilycox@untamedclay.com?subject=Oct.

Triangle Potters Guild, Raleigh, NC.
information here
Contact: Triangle Potters Guild mailto:wanderland@att.net?subject=October

Seagrove, Seagrove, NC
Contact: Jennie Lorette Keatts mailto:jennie@jlkjewelry.com?subject=Oct.

Carolina Claymatters in conjunction with Carolina Clay Connection
Contact: Jinny Hargrave mailto:CarolinaClay@aol.com?subject=Oct. and Sylvia Coppola mailto:sylviacoppola@gmail.com?subject=Oct.

UNC Asheville.
Contact: Brent Skidmore mailto:bskidmor@unca.edu?subject=Oct.

Potters of the Roan, Bakersville/Penland area.
Contact: Gaye Smith potteryggs@mac.com and Michael Kline michaeljkline@gmail.com

"Brown Sugar" Art Pottery Glazes

2009-09-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

by Jay Henderson

North Carolina's vintage art pottery shops usually had a glaze referred to as "Brown Sugar." These rustic-looking glazes were popular with tourists and were in demand by the candle-making operations which purchased large numbers of small wares.

The most distinctive "Brown Sugar" glaze - - one that is widely associated with North Carolina pottery - - is the lead-rutile matte glaze in shades of tan and brown. Ironically, this archetypical North Carolina glaze did not originate there, but was purchased from B. F. Drakenfeld & Co., which was once a major factor in the American ceramics industry. Drakenfeld had its headquarters in New York City and manufacturing facilities in Washington, PA. The company was bought out in 1966 and is now a subsidiary brand of the Ferro Glass & Color Corporation. In its day, Drakenfeld was a major manufacturer of ceramic colorants or "stains." Certain of these were used to color its lead-rutile glazes.

Lead-fluxed glazes fired to moderate earthenware temperatures take on a matte or semi-matte finish if they contain about 4-1/2 to 5 per cent rutile, which is an impure form of titanium oxide. The addition of a colorant or stain to such a glaze gives a mottled tint to the result. Lead-rutile matte glazes with tan-brown or green colorants have a "rustic" look which many buyers found appealing on North Carolina earthenware art pottery. The tan-brown version of this glaze came to be called "Brown Sugar." North Carolina potters being an inventive lot, they soon figured out how to make their own versions of the lead-rutile glazes, and thus how to produce their own "Brown Sugar" variations.

J. B. Cole's Pottery initially purchased its glazes from Ceramic Color And Chemical Mfg. Co., located then as now in New Brighton, PA, near Pittsburgh. These were lead-fluxed frits and as far as I know did not include lead-rutile glazes. When the Ceramic Color glazes developed problems, J. B. Cole purchased equipment and materials and thereafter made its own fritted lead glazes; this was some time in the early 1950s.

The "Brown Sugar" glaze produced by J. B. Cole Pottery after World War II was a double-dip glaze -- the piece was first dipped in white and then in a dark brown glaze. Because the white glaze had a different composition than the colored J. B. Cole glazes, the two were somewhat incompatible and usually would separate during the firing process, forming (ideally) an attractive multi-hued finish in tones of cream, brown, and brass. The process was difficult to control and sometimes the finished piece was a dark brown. If the glazes melded together for some reason, the result was a mustard yellow-brown.

Note: You can right-click on any bordered image and select "open link in new window" (or tab) for a larger view. If the image is oversized for your screen, you can right-click on it and select "View Image" (in Firefox) or "Open Image In New Window" (in Safari) to control the display. In either case, the cursor turns into a +/- button and can be placed anywhere in the image to click in to a close-up view.

Above: Two brown sugar jugs; on the left, by M. L. Owens (stamped on bottom); on the right, by Waymon Cole. The M. L. Owens jug shows a typical glaze result while the Cole jug is the dark version of its brown-over-white glaze.Three brown-sugar glazed Rebecca jugs. Rebeccas were very popular with tourists and were produced by many of the North Carolina art potteries.

Three brown sugar pieces from Seagrove Pottery. The two light-toned pieces on the left are from the mid-1970s; the jug is dated 1976 and was made by an apprentice whose name now escapes me. The middle piece, turned by Dorothy Auman and glazed by Walter Auman, shows a typical soft, semi-matte lead rutile glaze from the 1970s following the first reformulation to reduce lead content. The coffeepot on the right is from the early 1980s, after a further Federally-mandated reduction in lead content resulted in shinier lead-rutile glazes.

Above: These small pieces were turned for the candle-maker trade. Several concerns bought small wares in wholesale volumes, then filled them with candlewax and a wick for retail sale. This cream-and-sugar pair was made by M. L. Owens for the Tarheel Candle Co. of Durham, N.C. The pieces show a lead-rutile glaze fired to moderate earthenware temperatures. Right: This vase by A. R. Cole demonstrates another result of lead-rutile glazing. A. R. Cole fired his wares hotter than other earthenware potters, which resulted in a high-gloss finish. The rutile formed microcrystals in the surface of the glaze which "chained" together to form the randomized light-colored patterns as the glaze cooled. This use of lead-rutile glazes could produce striking, variegated patterns.

Another pair of brown-sugar jugs. The "little brown jug" notion was appealing to customers. The jug on the left is not identified; the one on the right is from Brown's Pottery in Arden, N.C.

Above: Two pitchers from J. B. Cole pottery showing the brown-over-white glaze. This glaze combination was quite variable and produced interesting multi-hued pieces. Right: J. B. Cole Pottery shadow lantern showing well-developed hues of brass, cream, and brown. The cut-outs in the shadow lantern help to bring about the variegated result.

A pair of small candlesticks and a bud vase glazed in the J. B. Cole brown-over-white glaze combination. These pieces show the attractive mottling which sometimes develops with this version of brown sugar.

J. B. Cole lidded pot in brown-over-white glaze. Another example of the variability of this glaze combination, showing a stippled effect on the sides, light-and-dark rings on the lid, and dark brown on the handle and edges where the glaze thinned during firing.

Above: Three small brown sugar pieces. The candlestick on the left is marked "Seagrove." The other two are believed to be C. C. Cole, the pitcher by Thurston Cole and the two-handled bud vase by Dorothy Auman. Right: This 19-inch-tall Rebecca jug is by Thurston Cole of C. C. Cole Pottery and the particular version of brown sugar glaze dates it to the 1950s. Although C. C. Cole's operation is best known for its small tourist-pottery wares, large pieces were made as well.

# # #

HISTORICAL POTTERY OF FAYETTEVILLE

2009-08-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

The North Carolina Pottery Center in partnership with the Fayetteville Transportation and Local History Museum will be opening an exhibition featuring “Historical Pottery of Fayetteville.”
Fayetteville has a limited but unique pottery tradition, as the Coastal Plain was not the best area for establishing a pottery manufacturing operation. The Piedmont and Mountain regions were the favored sites for North Carolina’s strong pottery production. The City of Fayetteville, with its early colonial beginnings, can claim only three known pottery manufacturers.

Gurdon Robins, a native of Hartford Connecticut, in partnership with his brother-in-law Timothy Savage, established a general store in Fayetteville in 1816. A decision was made to begin manufacturing their own pottery rather than importing it.

Edward Webster, a skilled potter from Hartford, was recruited in 1819 to construct a kiln and direct the pottery operation. He was later joined by his brothers Chester and Timothy. The Webster brothers most likely received their training as potters in the business of Goodwin & Webster in Hartford, and brought to Fayetteville the Connecticut tradition. Although Gurdon Robins’ business failed in 1823, it has the distinction of being the first structured salt-glaze stoneware operation in North Carolina. Edward Webster engaged in his own pottery manufacturing business in Fayetteville, which remained in operation until at least 1838.

The exhibit will feature examples of pottery produced by Goodwin & Webster in Hartford that reflect that strong Connecticut tradition of stoneware which was brought to Fayetteville by the Websters. These pieces of pottery can be compared to those produced by the Websters in Fayetteville, and later in Randolph County.
For many years unmarked pottery produced by the Websters with incised birds, fish, floral, and other decorations were attributed to the unknown “Bird and Fish” potter. Patrons will have the ability to view an impressive collection of this work. Also, information will be available on ordering Quincy Scarborough’s recently published book, “North Carolina Decorated Stoneware: the Webster School of Folk Potters.”

The only other pottery operation in Fayetteville was established in 1880 by Edgar Allan Poe (not the Poet). The pottery operation was a sideline to his main business which involved the manufacturing of bricks and other building supplies. Poe was not a potter and had to recruit two experienced turners from Moore County; Manley W. Owen and William H. Hancock. For a period of almost 20 years, Poe Pottery produced a wide range of utilitarian pottery. The exhibit features many unique pieces of stamped Poe Pottery which reflect the Moore County tradition. This pottery can be compared with pottery produced by Owen and Hancock while they were engaged in business for themselves.

This new exhibit opens on August 11th at 10a.m. in Gallery I & II at the North Carolina Pottery Center, 233 East Avenue, Seagrove North Carolina.

On August 14th between 5:30-7:30p.m., there will be a FREE reception featuring local Seagrove potters, David and Deborah Garner, from Turn and Burn Pottery.

David and Deborah Garner will be displaying and selling their reproductions of the “Webster Tradition” pottery (shown in Gallery III). The reception will also feature a talk by guest speaker Professor Charles G. (Terry) Zug III, renowned author and highly respected expert in the field of North Carolina pottery.

This exhibition has been made possible by the generosity, of private collectors willing to share both their knowledge and rare examples of North Carolina pottery.

Turn and Burn Pottery

2009-08-02T06:30:00.000-04:00

I first met David Garner about 1979; we were both students at the Community College in Troy NC.
The college at the time was MCC and we both studied with instructor Mike Feree, who is still there today turning out potters.

David and his wife Deborah opened their shop Turn and Burn Pottery just off the main street of Seagrove in 1985.
David, who has been making pots since 1970, is the main thrower and Deborah is the decorator. Their combined work is quite lovely. It has a soft presents about it. The thrown forms are strong and could easily stand on their own, but Deborah takes and adds to them with her steady hand and keen eye for detail and design.
David and Deborah were invited to participate in the upcoming show at the NCPC
"Historical Pottery of Fayetteville"
Highlighting: 19th Century Webster and Poe Pottery
August 11, 2009- October 31, 2009

I asked David about the reproduction Webster ware he is making and he said,
“I was fascinated with old salt glaze and "decorated" salt glaze from that time period really jumped out at me. After we first started reproducing them I discovered the link between my Craven and the Webster ancestors.”
“The process is pretty much like any other pottery. Deborah incises the designs into leather hard pots. Cobalt is applied to most of the carvings. We fire them to cone 10 with wood and at white heat add salt to create the glaze.
We especially like the extreme salt texture the old timers called "leopard skin”. “
The Garners also went on to say,” We are honored and thankful to be asked to participate in this show.”
The Garners are both true treasures in the Seagrove Pottery community. David has been a past Mayor for the town and currently sits on the town board. From the NCPC press Release last month:
Last year Daivd was the recipient of two impressive awards. Each October, for the past 20 years, David and family represent themselves and Seagrove at the, "Village of Yesteryear" at the State Fair in Raleigh. Last year he was awarded, by nomination of 100 of his peers, to receive the "Craftsman of the Year" from the Village of Yesteryear. The Board of the North Carolina Art Education Association (NCAEA) chose to recognize and congratulate David last year as one of the "Art Stars", exemplary art educators and advocates in their fields and commemorated his accomplishments during the NCAEA Professional Development Conference. David also serves his community as a member of the Seagrove City Council. He continually volunteers at schools throughout the area while providing prison ministry with his wife, Deborah, statewide.
Please Join the NCPC for the Artist Reception: Friday, August 14, 2009 5:30 - 7:30 pm
( all receptions are Free to the public)

Local Artist Provides Free Educational and Historical Experience at the North Carolina Pottery Center

2009-07-13T12:52:00.000-04:00

Local Artist Provides Free Educational and Historical Experience at the North Carolina Pottery Center

Once again the North Carolina Pottery Center is opening its doors and grounds for the education and benefit of the public.
On Saturday July 18th, David Garner of Turn & Burn Pottery will be firing the groundhog kiln on the pottery center grounds. The firing of the groundhog kiln takes approximately 15 hours and uses 2 cords of wood. The groundhog kiln will be loaded with over 200 pieces of Webster reproduction pots which will be featured during the North Carolina Pottery Centers’ Artists’ Reception, Friday August 14th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The exhibit will feature Historical Pottery of Fayetteville, NC – Highlighting 19th Century Webster & E. A. Poe Pottery.

David, a well-known potter in the Seagrove community, and his wife Deborah were chosen to be featured in the upcoming exhibition of Webster and E.A. Poe because of their knowledge and expertise of Webster pottery. David and Deborah have been producing Webster reproduction pots since 1985.

The Webster brothers (Edward, Chester and Timothy) produced pottery at Robbins & Co. in Fayetteville, the first commercial Stoneware factory in NC. Their style of pottery was unique among the early examples of NC salt glazed with its charmingly incised etchings; including birds and fish with cobalt decorations -techniques brought from their Connecticut backgrounds in stoneware production at Goodwin & Webster in Hartford. This was the early 1800s when the majority of North Carolina potters were producing lower -fired redware pots. The brothers eventually moved to Randolph County, settling in the Coleridge area, with Edward soon moving on to South Carolina.

David became interested in the Webster School of folk pottery when he learned of the family connection to the Craven family. Chester Webster came to Randolph County and turned for Solomon Craven, the grandson of Peter Craven, and later for his son Bartlett Yancey (B.Y.) Craven. David’s grandmother Zedith Teague Garner was the daughter of Brian “Ducky” Dewey Teague and Bessie Lee Craven Teague (granddaughter of J.D. Craven).

David is one of the most humble and unassuming potters of the Seagrove area, but one who constantly and tirelessly promotes the area through education. Last year he was the recipient of two impressive awards. Each October, for the past 20 years, David and family represent themselves and Seagrove at the,"Village of Yesteryear" at the State Fair in Raleigh. Last year he was awarded, by nomination of 100 of his peers, to receive the “Craftsman of the Year” from the Village of Yesteryear. The Board of the North Carolina Art Education Association (NCAEA) chose to recognize and congratulate David last year as one of the “Art Stars”, exemplary art educators and advocates in their fields and commemorated his accomplishments during the NCAEA Professional Development Conference. David also serves his community as a member of the Seagrove City Council. He continually volunteers at schools throughout the area while providing prison ministry with his wife, Deborah, statewide.

Walking into David’s shop to view the many Webster reproduction pieces (runlets, jugs of all sizes, pitchers, jars and more) in various stages of development is a visual treat. David turns and Deborah carves. She uses no tracing; it is all done freehand and replicates the Webster school style with the hinge under the handle and many of the incised motifs, with the cobalt on wood fired salt glazed pots. Deborah’s favorite etchings are the birds and fish. Twenty years ago, when Turn & Burn was one of the few shops producing traditional shapes with salt glaze, a Webster collector walked in and suggested they try their hand at doing some reproductions. Some twenty years later they are still at it in addition to the many other styles they produce. There is just something really special about carrying on a technique that had such a significant historical impact on pottery making in the Seagrove community.

Please come out to the NCPC on Saturday, July 18th all day to meet the artists and see how the process was done over 200 years ago and continues today. Then come back Friday, August 14th from 5:30 to 7:30 for the Artist’s reception where the historical Webster and E.A. Poe pots will be on display and the pots that were fired on the 18th will be available for purchase. Both events are free and open to the public.

Opened in 1998 in Seagrove, the NCPC mission is to promote public awareness of North Carolina’s remarkable pottery heritage. The Center welcomes and informs visitors to the Seagrove area, enriching their experience through exhibitions and educational programs, while promoting potters working across the state. The NCPC is a private nonprofit entity, funded primarily through memberships, grants, admissions, and appropriations.

OPEN: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:00, ADMISSION (excluding free special events): $2 - adults, $1 - students 9th through 12th grades, Free - children through 8th grade, free - NCPC members. Handicap accessible. Groups and tours welcomed. For further information and details call 336- 873-8430, email: ncpc@atomic.net or visit www.NCPotteryCenter.com.

Sunset Mountain Pottery Ad from 1929

2009-07-10T11:04:00.001-04:00

by Jay Henderson

A collector friend from North Carolina, Peg Wiebe, sent me this reproduction of an advertisement for Sunset Mountain Pottery which was published in July 1929. (To access a full-size copy of the ad, click on the image below)

Sunset Mountain Pottery was made by J. B. Cole's Pottery and sold by a business named The Treasure Chest in Asheville, NC. The dates generally given for this arrangement are 1929-1935, so this ad is very likely the first for Sunset Mountain Pottery.

This is how the advertisement describes the wares:

The gorgeous autumnal colorings of this quaint hand-turned pottery from the “Hill Country” of Carolina makes it readily adaptable to home decoration. The cool dark green or the warm sunset tones blend charmingly with late summer and early autumn flowers. Several of the pieces shown will also make delightful lamp bases.

All shapes are available in two colors – orange reds with darker markings, and dark green with darker markings. Please specify color when ordering.

The glaze described as "orange reds with darker markings" must have been the chrome-red glaze which was very popular during the Depression years and remains a favorite of modern collectors. The "dark green with darker markings" may be the same as the green and black glaze described in the 1932 Cole Pottery Catalog. Many more shapes and colors were added to the Sunset Mountain Pottery line over the years.

Above: J. B. Cole's Pottery vase with "Sunset Mountain Pottery" stamp (inset). Click on the image for a larger view.

The Treasure Chest and another mountain crafts business, Log Cabin, were combined and incorporated in 1932 as Three Mountaineers, Inc. The business eventually came to focus on wooden furniture and other wooden articles. The Sunset Mountain Pottery line was discontinued in 1935.

This article was published originally in Backcountry Notes.

Copyright © 2009 by Jay Henderson.

The Living Tradition - North Carolina Potters Speak

2009-06-27T19:41:00.000-04:00

The book signing and sale of gently used pots turned out to be a great success for the NCPC.
There was a crowd there early to get their choice of the older used pots.
Pots sold through out the day and by the end of the day the tables were sparse.
With just a few pots left which will be added to the NCPC's gift shop.

The book signing for, "The Living Tradition" drew yet another crowd.
Folks lined up in order to have their books signed by featured potters and contributors .
Vernon and Pam Owen
Hal and Eleanor Pugh
Mark Hewitt
Tom Suomalain
Terry Zug
Michelle Francis
Caroleen Sanders
Jen Berline

There are books available through the NCPC Gift shop.
Call or stop in to pick one up.

Phone: (336) 873-8430
Email: ncpc@atomic.net
233 East Avenue, Seagrove, NC 27341

http://ncpotterycenter.com/

If you would like to make a donation:
Go to the home page for information.
Donate today!

Exceptional Sale of Historic, Gently Worn Pots & Book Signing

2009-06-10T08:04:00.000-04:00

North Carolina Pottery Center
Exceptional Sale of Historic, Gently Worn Pots & Book Signing

The North Carolina Pottery Center has planned an exciting, educational and free day for the public on Saturday, June 20th from 10-4.
Visitors from near and far, young and old are invited to spend the day at the Center to be entertained and educated about the history, heritage and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina, one of the state’s most well-loved and treasured art forms.
The “Pots from the Attic” Fundraiser runs all day and features a collection of over 200 highly unique pieces. Shapes and sizes vary from crocks to candle holders to sugar bowls and Rebecca pitchers as well as marked souvenir pots from the past tourist trade. A majority of pots were donated from the collection of Dr. Everette James. NCPC board member, Pam Owens from Jugtown commented, "I know I speak for the whole NCPC Board in expressing our gratitude to Everette James for the donation of his historic, and well known pottery collection from the Saint James Place Museum in Roberson, NC. There are many wonderful study pieces in the "Pots from the Attic" Fundraiser. We look forward to a full and interesting day of events on June 20."
Mark Hewitt, accomplished Pittsboro potter and VP of the NCPC describes the collection like this. “In many ways pots are like people, we give them human associations by describing their feet, bellies, necks, and lips. Pots, like people, are also fragile. Over the course of a lifetime, we all get chipped and banged about, but carry on, somehow tougher for our experiences. Likewise the pots in this sale have been slightly damaged, but they still retain their core beauty, somehow made more real by their flaws. The pots in the sale have been well-loved. There are examples of all types of North Carolina pottery, from utilitarian to art ware, small pieces and large. The sale includes many hidden treasures, rare stamps, and familiar gems.” The range of pots includes those from Cole Pottery in Sanford, Jugtown, Ben Owen-Master Potter and North State among many others. This is a great opportunity to begin or add to an existing collection in a very affordable way. All pots are priced to sell.
In tandem, a reception and book signing of The Living Tradition: North Carolina Potters Speak takes place from 2-4. The recently released book includes intimate interviews with 23 of North Carolina’s most distinguished potters. With illuminating interviews conducted by Michelle Francis and Charles “Terry” Zug III, resplendent photography by Rob Amberg, editing by Denny Hubbard Mecham, and publishing by Goosepen Studio & Press, this is the culmination of a documentary project by the North Carolina Pottery Center to promote and preserve North Carolina’s unique pottery making history. The funding for this distinctive project was made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museums and Library Sciences, a national organization. Featured artists from the book attending the reception include; Ben Owen III, Pam and Vernon Owens, Hal and Eleanor Pugh, Caroleen Sanders, Mark Hewitt and interviewer Terry Zug. Refreshments will be served. All proceeds from The Living Tradition and the “Pots from the Attic” Fundraiser directly benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center. Sample pages can be viewed at www.NCPotteryCenter.com.
A full day can easily be spent at the Center with individuals and families free this Saturday to take in the significance of the permanent historical section, beginning with the Native American pottery exhibit and artifacts, through the tools and functional pots of the agricultural era, to the movement toward art pottery and to the more contemporary pots of today. Two large display cases hold samples of approximately 85% of the local Seagrove community potters. The Center rotates exhibits every 3 to 4 months and the current exhibit features works by Dan Finch and the Dan Finch Studio Potters. Visitors are welcome to pack a picnic lunch to enjoy on the outdoor tables underneath the grove of 100-year-old oak trees, and wander the charming rural grounds. Here one can explore the outside groundhog kiln and double chambered wood–firing kiln designed and built by potters Ruggles and Rankin (also featured in The Living Traditions book) during a teaching event.
Day-long demonstrations are held on Saturdays in the Center’s Educational Building by local potter Chad Brown. Chad is a 5th generation potter; his great-great grandfather was William Henry Chriscoe, a portion of whose original log cabin pottery studio now resides in the Smithsonian Museum. Chad is an up-and-coming potter to watch on the Seagrove scene, having worked as a journeyman potter for numerous studios and assisting many local potters with their wood firings. His decision to pursue his own pottery full-time this year was rewarded last month when he received the “The Award of Excellence” at The Arts in the Park show in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Sid Luck of Luck’s Ware, coordinator of the 2008-09 TAPS (Traditional Arts Program for Students) said, “I was most fortunate to have Chad as an assistant in the TAPS program this year. He is an excellent potter, has a great rapport with students and is very dependable.” TAPS is an afterschool collaboration between the NC Arts Council, the NC Pottery Center, and Seagrove Elementary School. Its purpose is to provide public school students with the knowledge and practices of the Seagrove traditional pottery culture. Mark Hewitt remarked, "Chad Brown has quietly established his presence as one of the most talented younger potters in Seagrove. We all enjoy Chad's humor and good nature, and know how much he contributes to the NCPC with his patient, insightful demonstrations and his warm, generous personality. His beautiful pots reflect who he is."
Opened in 1998 in Seagrove, the NCPC mission is to promote public awareness of North Carolina’s remarkable pottery heritage. The Center welcomes and informs visitors to the Seagrove area, enriching their experience through exhibitions and educational programs, and promoting potters working today across the state. The NCPC is a private nonprofit entity, funded primarily through memberships, grants, admissions, and appropriations. OPEN: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:00, ADMISSION (excluding free special events): $2 - adults, $1 - students 9th through 12th grades, Free - children through 8th grade, free - NCPC members. Handicap accessible. Groups and tours welcomed. For further information and details call 336- 873-8430, email

Cousins in Clay

2009-06-01T07:52:00.000-04:00

Cousins in Clay:
Seagrove Potters Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke have invited NC Potter Michael Kline to join them for a combined Pottery Opening at Bulldog Pottery.
Kline a “clay cousin” from Bakersville, is known for his floral brush imagery that gracefully wraps around his pottery forms. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and add to your pottery collection or begin one.
June 6 and 7, 2009
Saturday 9:00 - 5:00
Sunday 10:00 - 4:00

www.michaelklinepottery.blogspot.com
www.bulldogpottery.blogspot.com
www.cousinsinclay.com

THE LIVING TRADITION

2009-05-29T07:20:00.000-04:00

THE LIVING TRADITION
North Carolina Potters Speak

Interviews by Michelle Francis & Charles “Terry” Zug III
Photographs by Rob Amberg
Edited by Denny Hubbard Mecham

Published for the North Carolina Pottery Center by Goosepen Press
and available at the NC Pottery Center
Twenty interviews with some of North Carolina’s most distinguished potters intimately reveal the “aspirations and attitudes” of clay-working in a contemporary, diverse tradition. From the “fast nickel” or the “slow dime” and the practicalities of pricing and selling, to technical discussions of kiln building, clay processing, throwing, glazing, and firing, to the spirituality of the creative process and the medium of clay as a “reflection of life,” potters from across the state vivify the struggle and reward of their lives and work to interviewers Michelle Francis and Charles “Terry” Zug III.

Luminous photographs by Rob Amberg complement the artists ’ own words – revelatory of character and ripe with anecdote – in this culmination of a documentary project by the North Carolina Pottery Center to promote and protect North Carolina’s unique pottery-making history.
29.95

A Glorious Spring Day in Seagrove, NC- Tom Starland

2009-04-20T13:22:00.000-04:00

It was April 18, 2009, and by 6am, Linda and I were in the car headed for Seagrove, NC, for the first day of the Celebration of Spring in Seagrove where over 40 potteries in the area would be greeting visitors who would be coming to see new works - many fresh from the potter’s kilns. Estimated arrival time was 10am where we would meet up with our friend and part time technical advisor, Will Ravenel, at the parking lot of the NC Pottery Center in Seagrove.

I felt it was only fair to get Will to join us from Greensboro, NC, since some folks think people in Greensboro would have a hard time finding their way to Seagrove to find great pottery. And, as I expected, he had no trouble and actually beat us there - just before 10am.

I’m having a little fun with the folks who thought they had to take Seagrove pottery to Greensboro for some reason. As I’ve said before, if you want to see Seagrove pottery - go to Seagrove.

At 6am, getting into the car it was cool and it stayed cool until the sun was up long enough to do its thing. By the time we arrived at the Pottery Center’s parking lot - we could tell it was going to be a wonderful spring day. And, it was.

Our first stop was at Johnston & Gentithes Art Pottery. I knew we were in trouble right away. They had complimentary hand-crafted oatmeal cookies and outstanding pottery. I fell in love with Fred Johnston’s pots right off and we loved Carol Gentithes’ animal sculptures - especially the dog eating the tax return. “I’m sorry Uncle Sam - my dog ate my return.” The problem was - this was our first stop and I was already hot to buy.

We hadn’t really intended to buy on this trip. I just wanted to meet some of the blogging potters who I’ve been following since last year when I first learned that the NC Pottery Center was in financial trouble. A movement had formed to save the Center and bloggers had a big part in helping. The Center was saved and I’ve been learning a lot about potters and their processes - things I would have never known without those blogs. And, part of this event was another fundraiser for the Center. Many of these same Seagrove potters and others from around NC and the region had donated works for silent and live auctions taking place this same day entitled, Many Faces for the Center, held at the Pottery Center - our final destination for the day.

So here we were at our first stop and itching to spend money we really didn’t have to spend. We knew we were going to buy something this day - we always do. We love pottery. But we displayed strong self-control. And, besides - these potteries would not be going anywhere. Well, that was the plan anyway.

Next stop, Whynot Pottery, to meet Mark and Meredith Heywood. Meredith and I had become e-mail buddies during the Save the Pottery Center campaign. We arrived and walked into the gallery and Will sees a vase against the wall and the next thing we know he’s buying it. And, Linda discovers jewelry. All bets are off and the shopping begins. But we’re being conservative and selecting pieces with low price tags, but good pieces. It’s soon like the British on a visit to Willy Wonka’s. Well, not really, but it was amazing to see how self-control was soon out the window.

While there, Meredith gave us a tour of the studio which had burned last year. I’ve been watching the progress of the studio’s recovery through her blog. They have a great location there and we all agreed that if we lived there we wouldn’t get any work done at all.

We next found ourselves at Ben Owen Pottery where we got a look at Ben Owen III’s exceptional works. My eyes quickly scanned the gallery to see a red pot, but no glowing red pots. But they did have examples in the Museum part of the shop. The red is spectacular, but so is a lot of his work and before we left I was holding a small blue piece with small hints of red in it. Come Monday morning I might have to see if I could get some of our neighbors to pay me to rake leaves or cut grass. This was not how the day was supposed to go. Look, touch, enjoy, but don’t…

How stupid was it to make our next stop Jugtown Pottery? The pottery compound was an amazing sight as was the pottery inside and before you knew it we had acquired pieces, one by Vernon Owens and one by Pan Owens. Our heads were spinning, so we headed to the Westmoore Family Restaurant for lunch. It had been a long time since that Egg McMuffin in Manning, SC, at 7am. And I think my usually good self-control was being affected by my lack of food.

After lunch we drove to From The Ground Up Pottery to see Michael Mahan’s work, another blogger. We wanted to see the “soul pots” to get some of those good vibes of positive energies of love and kindness. It might be good for building up our self-control. As we drive up Linda and I see wind chimes - at least a kind of upside down clay bowl with a wooden ringer, both hung from ropes. They made a really nice sound.

The problem here was - I got talking with Michael Mahan and didn’t really get to look around too much and before I knew it - Linda and Will were giving me that look of - miles to go and time is running out. But I’m sure I only dodged the buying bullet - for now. After all - I’m in Seagrove once a month - very early, but nothing says I can’t wait around until potteries open.

Next stop, Dean and Martin Pottery. I know - some name right? Now, you have to think that with so many potteries in Seagrove that you are going to walk in one and not see anything that speaks to you, but it wasn’t happening at this pottery. Both Jeffrey Dean and Stephanie Martin had works that were speaking to both Linda and I. You know what happened - need I say more?

We did find one or two of those potteries where we did the quick walk through and out the door. I won’t mention them, as I’ve learned in my years in covering the arts - all art appeals to someone - all art does not have to appeal to me. I make no judgements. So in order to prevent someone from trying to figure out where we were, I’m skipping several stops and jumping to our final pottery stop. You have to watch every word you say - some people try to make the most out of nothing sometimes.

Samantha Henneke is another one of the Seagrove blogging potters. Her blog is on my daily check list. She and Bruce Gholson own Bulldog Pottery. As soon as we all enter their showroom - bingo we are going nuts again. Our eyes are just bouncing from one pot to the next and wall pieces that looked like batik. I point to a spot on one wall and tell Will - “I really like that one”. He doesn’t even see what I’m pointing at - I can’t get his full attention. Finally I break through and he sees I’m pointing to an issue of Carolina Arts on the wall.

Turns out both artists have been followers of the paper for some time - way back to 1997 when we first went into North Carolina. They used to pick it up at the Green Hill Center for NC Art in Greensboro. We don’t go to Greensboro anymore, which is too bad, but we never could find any regular support for the paper there and that kind of matches up with things - I mean if the people there can’t figure out that you go to Seagrove for Seagrove pottery - how could they ever figure out that in order to keep us in Greensboro - they would have to support us.

Anyway - we all got some very nice pottery at Bulldog Pottery, and when we went to put the bags in our car’s trunk - the trunk was full of bags. What had happened to our plan - where was the self-control?

Next stop - back to the NC Pottery Center for the auctions. It was 3pm and Linda and I were beginning to feel our day. As we walked in we were just in time for the end of the first silent auction - but nothing was silent here. The place was abuzz with chatter and excitement. Some folks were just about to become the winning bidders of donated pottery and round two was about to begin. We moved through the crowd as best we could to see what was being offered. The theme was, Many Faces for the Center, and it was interesting to see how the various artists had taken on that theme.

Will asked if I was going to be bidding. I reminded him of the trunk of the car and gave him one of those looks - like - haven’t I gotten in enough trouble already? Besides I’m more the kind of guy who likes the “Buy Now” option on eBay. I’ve learned what can sometimes happen in the heat of an auction - even silent auctions. I like the satisfaction of walking up to something and saying - you are mine now. During an auction if I like something and someone else outbids my wallet, which isn’t hard to do - I’ll just feel bad.

Wait a minute, I have to adjust that statement - it sounds a little too manly. What I should have said is - I like to fall for something and then ask Linda - may I have it?

Before long, the crowd is beginning to wear on us and we decide since we are not making bids - perhaps our day has come to an end. We say our good-byes, after we sort out the purchases in our car’s trunk and part to return home in different directions. Will pointed out that since Greensboro is less than an hour away (Did you hear that folks in Greensboro - you’re less than an hour away from Seagrove.) that he will have finished a nap before we get home. Thanks again for that thought, Will.

By 8pm we had arrived home - just another 14 hour adventure in the Carolina Arts history books. Although it was a long day - we had a great time.

Then began the unwrapping of the purchases made earlier that day - the rediscovery of what we had fallen for. In the bag from Bulldog Pottery we found a notice for a show, Cousins in Clay, scheduled for June 6 & 7, 2009, at Bulldog which would be featuring works by Bruce Gholson, Samantha Henneke, and Michael Kline - another blogging potter from Bakersville, NC, whom I’ve also been following through his blog. Here’s a case where Bakersville comes to Seagrove. You can find many of these blogs I mentioned in our links on the side of this page.

Some Points To Remember

First off, going to Seagrove is like going to an art walk in downtown Charleston, SC. There is no way you are going to see it all in one visit. Both places are steeped in history and tradition, but you will always discover something new every time you visit. So for those potteries who might feel left out - no worries mates - we’ll be back. Linda and I have been collecting pottery for almost 30 years - we’re not finished yet.

Secondly, on this day our purchases ranged from $5 to a high of $45. My want list ran as high as $450 and up, but they will have to wait for better days. So even in tough economic times - you can go and fill your eyes with wonder and not drain the family coffers - that is if you have better self-control than some. Will is coming our way in a few weeks and he was already planning a return trip to Seagrove with Mother’s Day in mind. There are going to be some lucky mothers on that day.

Thirdly, for the AARP generation, which you enter at age 50 even if you’re not a member - a visit to Seagrove’s potteries was easy to take. You can drive right up to most of the pottery shops, we took advantage of three - count them, three good rest rooms - one at the Pottery Center, several at the Westmoore Family Restaurant, and there is a rest area on Hwy. 705 - the pottery highway. That’s important. Also stop at the Pottery Center first - they have good maps on how to find the potteries.

Fourthly, even if all you do is look, Seagrove’s rolling hills and country roads are a wonderful backdrop to the potteries, which are interesting in themselves. And although Seagrove when looked at on a map seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere, it is centrally located near many of North Carolina’s populated areas - even Greensboro, and not that far from many places in South Carolina. If Linda hadn’t been on call for her 911 job on Sunday, we probably would have stayed with Will in Greensboro and gone back to more potteries on Sunday. They also have hotels in the area for those without friends in the area.

And my fifth point is, we have been involved with the Seagrove area and its potters since last July, but we know there are great potters located all over the Carolinas. In fact, our last pottery purchase was made almost a year and a half ago up in Asheville, NC, during one of the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Fairs. We purchased a piece of pottery from Courtney Erin Martin from Bakersville, NC. Before that we purchased works at one of the annual Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Crafts Fair in Charleston, SC - probably from a Carolina potter. Our collection is focused on works by Carolina artists. And, before that we’ve gotten works at Southern Pottery Workcenter & Gallery in Columbia, SC. Peter Lenzo does some outstanding work and also carries great works from other Carolina potters. In other words - we get around and we shop around.

But, if it seems like we have been focused on Seagrove - we have. They need the attention. They deserve the attention - at least the good kind. And, I hope you (the readers) are giving it to them through this blog.

The next big event in Seagrove will be the 2nd annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters, taking place on Nov. 20-22, 2009. Actually two pottery festivals will be taking place that weekend in Seagrove. I recommend you go see both, but you don’t have to wait for a big event to go visit potteries in Seagrove. In fact, I bet they would like it if you just went there any old time. Buy all the pottery you want - they’ll make more.

Seagrove NC week-end events

2009-04-14T17:11:00.000-04:00

Seagrove, NC.......Working together for the good of the community.... Seagrove potters are again coming together to create an eventful weekend with something for everyone. Close to 40 clay artists will be offering special events and kiln openings throughout Seagrove the weekend of April 18-19, 2009. Spring has always been a time for renewal and awakening in Seagrove and this year an unprecedented number of shops are opening their doors together to Celebrate spring with special events, which quite appropriately coincide with Earth Day! A great weekend to come out and leisurely browse, shop and learn about local, lasting treasures made from the minerals and clay of the Earth.

A large variety of events are scheduled throughout the weekend including but not limited to loads of beautiful new pots fresh from the kilns, door prizes, refreshments, turning demonstrations and raku firing. Descriptions of events can be found at www.CelebrationofSeagrovePotters.com.

The shop events happening Saturday coincide with the annual fund raising event at the North Carolina Pottery Center. In a year that has demonstrated a great need for funding; the annual event features the appropriate and creative name and theme "Many Faces for the Center". And this does not mean just face jugs! Pieces will be available for viewing all day, with a silent auction beginning at 2:30, a social hour with refreshments at 4 and the live auction at 5pm.

Many pieces were donated from the recent community firing held at the NC Pottery Center on the 4th of April. A community firing by Seagrove potters was unloaded this week with each participating potters donating a piece to the auction and several donating collaborative works.

Stop at the NC Pottery Center or any participating shop to pick up a map of the area and listing of events as you come into Seagrove, or print the list from our web site www.CelebrationOfSeagrovePotters.com.

Participating shops include:
Avery, Ben Owen, Blue Stone, Bulldog, Cady Clay Works, Cagle Road, Caldwell-Hohl, Crystal King, Dean & Martin, DirtWorks, Dixieland, Dover, Fireshadow, From the Ground Up, Gingerbread House, Great White Oak Gallery, His Hands, JLK Jewelry, Johnston & Gentithes, Jugtown, King's, Kovack, Latham's, Luck's Ware, Lufkin, McCanless, Old Gap, Original Owens, Potts, Ray, Seagrove Stoneware, The English Potter, Thomas, Turn & Burn, Uwharrie Crystalline, Village, Westmoore, Whynot, Wyndham & Brookehaven. Full details, including hours and events are listed at www.CelebraionOfSeagrovePotters.com.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters is a gathering of diverse clay artists joining forces to showcase the traditional and contemporary pottery of the historic Seagrove community. The goal is to maintain the authenticity of Seagrove pottery by working together in a community effort to promote the historical, educational and artistic aspects that can be experienced when visiting Seagrove, and to draw customers to the shops to have a first hand Seagrove experience.

Today at the NCPC

2009-04-04T05:23:00.000-04:00

April 4th the NCPC will host a book signing by Owen/Owens family members and musical performances by members of the family and local Seagrove musicans. The event begins at 1:00 and runs through 4:00 pm with dessert and coffee to be served from 2-4.

The NCPC will also host a kiln firing throughout the day.
This event is free and open to the public

Preview exhibition of auction pieces on display now

Faces for the Center
An exhibition of pieces to be sold in the silent auction is on display now
All proceeds benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center, a non-profit entity
that is supported in great part by donations from individuals, potters and
collectors.

April 18th, 2009
Faces for the Center Fundraiser Event
2:30-6:00
Silent Auction to be held from 2:30 to 4:00
Light refreshments from 4:00 to 5:00
Live Auction starts at 5:00 This event is free and open to the public

April Events

2009-04-03T06:45:00.000-04:00

The 12th Annual Catawba Valley Pottery & Antiques Festival

2009-03-17T08:09:00.000-04:00

The 12th annual Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, I-40, Exit 125 in Hickory, NC from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Tickets are $6.00 for adults and $2.00 for children 12 and under and are available at the door. Ticket holders will be entered in a drawing for door prizes.

Friday night, March 27, 2009 there is a preview party from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. A Southern supper, live entertainment and an early buying opportunity make this a popular event. An advance $40.00 ticket is required and must be purchased by March 20. No Preview Party tickets will be sold at the door. Please call 828-324-7294 or 828-465-0383 for purchase information.

This festival is a fundraising event for two non-profit institutions, the Catawba County Historical Association and the North Carolina Pottery Center.

The Catawba County Historical Association maintains a 1924 Courthouse Museum in Newton, the Harper House/ Hickory History Center in Hickory, the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge in Claremont, and Murray’s Mill in Catawba. The Courthouse Museum, the main office for the Catawba County Historical Association, houses an outstanding collection of artifacts from Catawba County, including furniture, textiles, pottery, and period room interiors.

The North Carolina Pottery Center is located in Seagrove, NC. The NCPC’s mission is to interpret the history and ongoing tradition of North Carolina pottery. In the South, good clay could be found adjacent to rivers and streams and provided the basic element to produce pottery. Beginning with Native American pottery, production has continued for centuries. The Pottery Center provides interpretative exhibits and provides information to visitors regarding approximately 100 potteries located in the Seagrove area.

Do you have a piece of pottery of unknown background? Representatives from the North Carolina Pottery Collectors’ Guild will be available to offer expert opinions on the possible background and history of individual collectors’ pieces.

In addition to the 110 pottery and antique vendors from across the Southeast, the festival will feature a pottery exhibit prepared by Dr. Terry Zug , retired University of North Carolina at Chapel professor and author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina. This year’s exhibit is entitled “How Contemporary Potters Use Tradition.”

The speaker this year is Mark Hewitt, world-renowned potter, who specializes in the production of very large planters, storage jars and vases, along with a full range of high quality tableware. He works with local clays and his principal glazes are the traditional Southern alkaline glaze and salt glaze. His work is fired in a large wood burning kiln the size of a school bus. His lecture will be “A Few of my Favorite Things about North Carolina Pottery”. To learn more about Mark Hewitt, go to www.hewittpottery.com.

This year for the first time, attendees may visit the Enola’s Group Studio XI Gallery - Folk Art by the Disabled.
For further information on the Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival, please call 828-322-3943 or 828-324-7294.

Auction 2009

2009-03-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

For a list of pots and doners please go to the NCPC link

C. C. Cole "Tourist" Pottery

2009-02-28T21:13:00.002-05:00

C. C. Cole "Tourist" Pottery, by Jay Henderson

C. C. Cole "tourist" pottery is the secret sin of many collectors and admirers of North Carolina art pottery. Often consigned to second-class status - - as if the great bulk of North Carolina pottery of the era wasn't sold to tourists - - these colorful and usually multi-colored honey jugs, cider jugs, vases, and cream-and-sugar sets are works of artisanship in their own right.

All of the Piedmont pottery shops made "tourist" pottery to a certain extent, but this was the main product of Charlie Cole's operation. C. C. Cole Pottery opened for business in 1938 and closed in 1971; in between those points, it turned out millions of "tourist" pottery items. Many of these were wholesaled to companies like Stuckey's, which filled them with honey or syrup for sale on the pre-Interstate Highway rest stops. Like other North Carolina art pottery shops, C. C. Cole Pottery also made small pieces for wholesaling to the soap-and-candle concerns, such as Carolina Soap & Candle Makers and Tar Heel Candle Co.

Charlie Cole had been a potter in his own right but had quit turning pots after he lost a finger following a snake bite. (A picture of a Charlie Cole piece can be seen on Michael Mahan's b log.) But Charlie Cole's children Thurston Cole and Dorothy Cole Auman were among the best production turners in the business. Although they occasionally made large pieces, both Thurston and Dorothy concentrated on making large quantities of small wares, particularly the polychrome-glazed honey jugs for which C. C. Cole Pottery is known.

The polychrome glazes are not unique to C. C. Cole Pottery, but they are characteristic of its wares. C. C. Cole polychrome-glazed pieces first were dipped in a white body glaze; other colors were dribbled around the body; then the top was dipped in yet another color. Four-color glazes are typical, but there are many pieces with three-color glazes and some with a body glaze and a top glaze. There are pots glazed in single colors, including both colored lead-fluxed glazes and lead-rutile matte glazes.

The finished appearance of the multicolored glazes can vary greatly, depending on the degree of heat applied during the final burning of the ware. The glazes on some early pieces are barely vitrified; other pots have over-fired glazes which have run together. Lead-rutile glazes have a matte finish at normal earthenware temperatures but take on a high-gloss, variegated surface at higher heat levels. Part of the charm of C. C. Cole pottery is the seemingly-endless variety of colors and glaze melts available.

The great majority of C. C. Cole pieces are unmarked. For a time during the 1950s, some pots were marked with a pair of stamps reading "C. C. Cole" and "Seagrove, N.C." These are relatively scarce. Charlie Cole also had a logo which contained the name "Dixie Craft Pottery," but the logo was used only on advertising materials and was never stamped on the pots. The "Dixie Craft Pottery" name likely derived from the Carolina Craft Pottery, which Charlie Cole and his brother Everett operated in Wake County from 1927 until 1933.

Thurston Cole was still young when he died in 1966. His premature passing was a loss not only to the C. C. Cole shop but to the whole North Carolina art pottery genre. When not engaged in producing honey jugs, Thurston made large pieces; some of his big floor vases are truly spectacular. Had he lived to see the Seagrove pottery revival, there undoubtedly would have been more of these. Two fine examples of Thurston Cole floor vases are reproduced in Perry (ed.), North Carolina Pottery, at pages 63 and 76.

Charlie Cole died in 1966. Both Dorothy and Walter Auman continued to work at C. C. Cole Pottery, turning and glazing pots, until that shop closed. During its thirty-plus years in operation, C. C. Cole Pottery produced a huge volume of pottery; the honey and cider jugs alone certainly numbered more than 5 million, and maybe double that. In one perspective, Thurston Cole produced more pots in a year than most studio potters make in a lifetime. Because they were used to sell honey and syrup, many of these were damaged or discarded, but the shop's output was so high that pieces remain available on the secondary market, turning up at yard sales and flea markets on a regular basis.

For a longer version of this article, click HERE.

To see a gallery of C. C. Cole tourist pottery, click HERE.

April Events

2009-02-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

On April 4th, a group of Seagrove potters will gather at the North Carolina Pottery Center (www.ncpotterycenter.com) to jointly fire the double chambered wood kiln. This will offer visitors an opportunity to watch the process, as well as view potters demonstrating the process of creating pieces of work.
Takuro Shibata, Director of STARworks Ceramics in nearby Star, NC, states "STARworks Ceramics is excited to donate our local clay mixed here in Star for the potters to use to make pieces to be fired in the kiln at the NC Pottery Center. This is a community event and using local clay is an element that makes this firing unique to Seagrove."

These events will coincide with the ending of the Owen/Owens Show, on April 4, the exhibition showcasing one of the original extended Seagrove families, which has been on display since January.
Members of the families will be performing their wonderful mountain music and there will be an opportunity to have your catalog signed by the exhibition participants from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.
This day will offer a variety of events from education to historical, all designed to offer the visitor a first hand experience of authentic Seagrove.

Pam Owens, NC Pottery Center Board member and Jugtown potter states, "The state of North Carolina is amazing for it's pottery and this day will showcase not only a longstanding family tradition that spans North Carolina, but also an authentic Seagrove experience.
The community kiln firing complements this exhibit and is a wonderful coming together of potters and a sharing of knowledge and ideas, an opportunity for the public to experience the community spirit of the Seagrove Potters and support the North Carolina Pottery Center."

The experience doesn't end on the 4th though.
On the 18th and 19th of April, Seagrove potters are planning kiln openings and special events in their shops.
The Celebration of Seagrove Potters web site www.celebrationofseagrovepotters.com and the Seagrove Area Potters Association web site www.discoverseagrove.com will showcase all the events taking place in Seagrove over this weekend, aptly dubbed the
Celebration of Spring in Seagrove.
The kiln which was fired at the NC Pottery Center on the 4th will be unloaded during the week of April 18 and each participating potter will donate one of the pieces to the Pottery Center's fund raising auction taking place on Saturday April 18th.
The annual fund raising auction is a crucial event for the North Carolina Pottery Center. The proceeds from the auction go to operating the museum and educational center.

A Silent Auction will be held from 2:30 to 4:00 with light refreshments from 4:00 to 5:00. The Live Auction starts at 5:00, all the events are free and open to the public

Owen/Owens show through April 3, 2009

2009-01-30T06:02:00.001-05:00

Joe Owen

Vernon Owens

Melvin Owens

Ben Owen and a very young Ben Owen III

Pottery Makers of the Owen and Owens Families

2009-01-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

James J. Owen (1830-1905) and Joseph Owen (1823-1905)
J.J. Owen and his brother, Joseph, may well be the first Owen potters in Moore County. They supplemented their farmers' income by making churns, jugs and other ware to sell or trade to the local community.

Benjamin Franklin Owen (1848-1917)
Son of Joseph Owen (1823-1905) and James J. Owen's nephew, Benjamin Franklin Owen turned pottery in J.D. Craven's shop located on the Plank Road that ran from Fayetteville to Winston-Salem. Scholars claim that "Frank" and his cousin Manley's generation were the last "true folk potters," employing traditional techniques to produce utilitarian ware for domestic use. They turned local clay and fired ware in wood-burning kilns. Frank's grandson, M.L. Owens, names Frank as the maker of the famous "brilliant orange glaze pie plate" that inspired arts advocate Juliana Busbee and her artist husband Jacques to market Seagrove pottery to the world. The famous "dirt dish" has also been attributed to Rufus Owen, Frank's nephew and M.L.'s uncle. Frank and his sons Rufus and James H. established a pottery shop together.
Manley W. Owen (Historians are unclear about the dates of his life)
Son of James J. Owen, Manley W. Owen learned the trade at his father's wheel. Manley W. turned ware for Edgar Allen Poe (E.A. Poe 1858-1934), a well-known potter of the late 19th century in Fayetteville.

Rufus Owen (1872-1948)
Rufus Owen persevered in the pottery business, following in the footsteps of his uncle Manley W. Owen and his father, Benjamin Franklin Owen, along with his brother, James H. Owen. According to Ben Owen III, Rufus' great-grandson, Rufus turned ware for the Busbees. Both Rufus and his brother James H. had sons who became excellent potters, honing their master class skills with wheel and kiln while inventing innovations that insured a steady stream of interested buyers.

Charles Owen (1902-1992)
Charlie grew up in his father Rufus' shop, and turned for the family business first at his Dad's pottery then at his brother Joe's Glenn Art Pottery. He traveled up to Virginia in the 1930s and turned ware for tourists visiting Williamsburg. Charlie stayed with Glenn Art Pottery until it closed in 1968, and worked again for his brother at Joe Owen Pottery. The Seagrove shop of Walter and Dorothy Auman utilized Charlie's turning talents as well.

Joseph Owen (1910-1986)
The youngest of Rufus' talented sons, Joe Owen was barely 12, when Jugtown Pottery opened in Seagrove. His generation was one of the first to grow up assuming that pottery production required artistic innovations to appeal to a changing customer base. Joe Owen operated Glenn Art Pottery from 1948 until 1968, as a largely wholesale business. Joe successfully turned large ware such as porch vases and Rebecca pitchers. He enjoyed experimenting with glazes. In 1968 he opened his own shop, Joe Owen Pottery, in Seagrove.

Benjamin Wade Owen (1905-1983)
Ben Owen was the principal potter at Jugtown from 1923 until it was sold in 1959. He shared that title with Charles Teague for the first decade of Jugtown's existence. Just 18 when he began, Ben displayed a competency with clay far beyond his years. Introduced to the ceramic traditions of other cultures by Jugtown owner Jacques Busbee, Ben skillfully interpreted the forms to suit North Carolina clay and 20th century customers. Along with his wife Lucille, a teacher, Ben looked after the aging Busbee couple while raising his own family. He left Jugtown in 1959 to open his own establishment, The Old Plank Road Pottery, next to his home in nearby Westmoore. In 1972, rheumatoid arthritis forced Ben Owen to retire. Ben's prolific productions remain models of inspiration and artistry for younger generations of potters.

Benjamin Wade Owen Jr. (1937-2002)
Called by his middle name, Wade grew up immersed in the Jugtown experience of the Busbee era. When his father, Ben Owen opened his own shop, Wade turned some pottery but focused on the laborious tasks of kiln loading and firing, clay mixing, glazing and the numerous daily tasks that allow a pottery to function efficiently. Wade pursued many of his own interests, including raising prize-winning cattle. He encouraged his young son Benjamin Wade Owen, III to develop pottery skills, and provided him with the love and support he had devoted to his own father's family business.

Benjamin Wade Owen III (1968-)
Ben Owen III learned pottery as a young boy under the tutelage of his renowned grandfather, Ben Owen. By the age of 17, he was the principal potter at the shop that had once been his grandfather's. Ben's talent and skills earned him early recognition, and he was requested to teach pottery at Pfeiffer College at 19. Ben attended East Carolina University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, receiving numerous awards, and learning that his artistic skills could be applied to many media, including woodworking and photography. After college, Ben continued to expand upon and refine his pottery legacy, and seems to have inherited his grandfather's interest in Asian ceramics and his genius for interpreting them in his own unique style. Ben not only experiments with form, surface design and glazes, but with kiln design and building as well. Ben Owen III's masterful articulation of the relationship of traditional form to surface design and its logical extensions have set a new standard of excellence for potters of his generation. Ben and his wife LoriAnn benevolently watch the developing artistry of their three children, Avery, Juliana, and Ivey.

James H. Owen (1866-1923)
James H., or "Jim," was one of the first potters the Busbees of Jugtown hired to turn ware. Jim turned vases and jars while other potters continued with strictly functional wares. His Jugtown pieces-only some of which are stamped-were the early transitional pieces sold by Juliana Busbee at her tearoom in New York. According to his son Melvin, Jim learned pottery from Paschal Marable of Randolph County, and upon returning to Moore County, he taught his father and brother the lucrative craft. They did open a shop together in 1910. Jim Owen experimented with adding decorative features to familiar jugs and churns, and developed a "floor vase" form. He passed away in 1923 just as the Busbees opened Jugtown, the Seagrove pottery shop that became famous for its unique glazes and graceful, "oriental translation" pottery.

Martha Jane Scott Owen (1875-1953)
Martha Jane was married to James H. Owen. Her family sold Jacques and Juliana Busbee the land that became Jugtown. Martha Jane, along with other local women and children, molded chicken-shaped salt and pepper shakers for sale at Jugtown. At ten cents a chicken, her contribution to the family business was considerable. Martha Jane and James H. Owen had eight children. Martha Jane continued to make pottery for the Busbees after her husband's death in 1923. The chickens she created so long ago were the beginnings of a popular pottery genre of sculpted farm animals that thrives to this day.

Jonah Owen (1895-1966)
Along with his brother Walter, "Jonie" Owen began turning for his father at J. H. Owen Pottery before the 1920s. Jonie and his brother Walter turned wares for North State Pottery, owned by Henry Cooper and his wife, Rebecca. Jonah Owen also worked for Log Cabin Pottery in Guilford County. He opened his own Steeds Pottery shop with his wife, Myrtis (1908-1993), who designed his pottery stamp.

Walter Owen (1904-1981)
Walter's early pottery career closely paralleled his brother Jonie's. He learned the pottery trade at his father's (J.H. Owen) pottery shop, and joined Jonie at North State Pottery in 1925. Walter (W.N. Owen) remained with the Coopers at North State Pottery as their principal potter until their deaths. He inherited the shop and changed its name to Pine State Pottery. Walter remained at his wheel until 1977.

Elvin Owen (1919-1994)
James H. Owen's youngest son Elvin was only four when his father died. It seems his brothers and uncles saw to his training in the family business, and he worked with Walter at North State Pottery from 1935-1936. He then turned and burned alongside Melvin at the pottery shop business M.L. revived on the site of their father's pottery. At 29, Elvin pursued other business opportunities in Florida and sometime later moved to the Winston-Salem area to make garden supplies from concrete and to operate his own pottery.

Melvin Lee Owens (1917-2003)
Of all of James H. Owen's sons, it can be said that Melvin most directly continued his father's legacy of pottery production. Growing up in the shadow of Jugtown, M.L. studied the art and craft of both large scale production pottery and artfully designed forms that appealed to discerning consumers of contemporary arts. Shortly after his marriage to Pearl Marie Garner in 1938, Melvin reopened his father's shop, and added a final "s" to the Owen name. For decades, M.L. filled large-scale wholesale orders, firing his kilns as many as three times a week. Such production with its necessary fast pace and demand for consistent quality provided a rigorous training environment for Melvin and Marie's eight children, most of whom continue to work in pottery to this day. M.L. also developed distinctive forms of his own, including slender tea pots and hilarious face jugs. Marie glazed pots, worked in the sales room and made occasional animals. Melvin received the North Carolina Heritage Award in 2000. His son, Boyd now operates the pottery that James. H. Owen began, with help from M.L.'s daughter, Nancy Owens Brewer.

Bobby Owens (1939-)
Melvin's first-born son Bobby spent his childhood learning the family business alongside his brothers and sisters. In 1960, John Maré, the new owner of Jugtown, hired Bobby, his brother Vernon and Charles Moore to replace the renowned Ben Owen, who had left Jugtown to open his own shop. Bobby and Charles left the turning to Vernon, and managed the backbreaking necessities of digging and processing clay, loading and firing kilns, cutting wood and maintaining Jugtown's numerous structures. After Maré's death in 1962, Bobby and Vernon operated Jugtown. For nearly fifty years, Bobby and his wife Emily have been an integral part of the Jugtown mystique, carrying on the legacy of the Owens family business.

Vernon Owens (1941-)
Vernon grew up working in his Dad's shop, absorbing shapes from his father, M.L. Owens and his uncle Walter Owen, who worked at North State Pottery in Sanford. In the late 1950s, at 15, he went to work also for C.C. Cole making as many as 200 small pieces a day. At 18, Vernon Owens took on the daunting responsibility of becoming Jugtown's principal potter. Although continuing many of the shapes and styles instituted during the years of Ben Owen's reign at Jugtown, Vernon developed a personal style and interpretation of both the traditional pottery forms of the community and Ben Owen's innovative "translations" of ancient Asian ceramics. In 1968, the timely purchase of Jugtown by Country Roads, a non-profit organization, echoed the intervention of innovative people and ideas that the Busbees had brought fifty years earlier. Country Roads director Nancy Sweezey helped Vernon to transition from lead-based glazes to safer formulas. She also began an apprenticeship program for interested students from across the country. Vernon married one of these apprentices, Pamela Lorette, in 1983. Vernon purchased Jugtown, and he and Pam have successfully continued the family business. He earned the prestigious NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award and the North Carolina Heritage Award. But Vernon says he will not consider himself a master potter until he can raise a pot as effortlessly as his father, M.L. Owens.

Pamela Lorette Owens (1958-)
When Pam began her apprenticeship at Jugtown in 1977, she was already an aspiring potter, having studied in pottery at High Mowing School in New Hampshire. She apprenticed at several potteries in her native New England and returned to Jugtown in 1980. Pam's artistry expresses itself in the numerous innovative forms that grace Jugtown's shelves, and her research into Seagrove's history has led to a revival of a number of traditional forms. Pam's leadership in developing Jugtown's glaze formulas has helped keep the pottery at the forefront of critical acclaim. Pam's sister, jewelry artist Jennie Lorette Keatts, has established a business of her own with a workshop at Jugtown, and she and Pam often collaborate on pieces that combine their pottery and metal skills and materials.

Travis Owens (1985-)
Although the Owen/Owens association with Jugtown has continued for generations, Travis Owens is the first potter to be born and raised there. Absorbed with the family business from an early age, Travis practiced on his own little wheel next to his mother Pam's, imitated his father Vernon's formidable concentration, and followed his Uncle Bobby all around Jugtown, hauling wood, stoking kilns, and tinkering with machinery. Graduating from N.C. State University in Raleigh with a B.A. in Art and Design, Travis joined his family as a full-time Jugtown potter in 2007. His energy and talent seem to assure the continuation of the family business for generations to come.

Bayle Owens (1990-)
Like most young people born and raised around a pottery, Travis' younger sister Bayle has been involved in every aspect of the business, from contributing ware for the shop to standing behind the counter and selling it. Currently a college student, Bayle takes time from her studies and her music to visit home and help out at the pottery. She enjoys sculpting animal figures, a tradition at Jugtown begun by her great-grandmother, Martha Jane Scott Owen, nearly a century ago.

Lula Belle Owens Bolick (1943-)
Melvin Owens' daughter, Lula joined the growing number of women potters on the wheel, changing a tradition once dominated by men. Lula married Glenn Bolick in 1962 and they lived next door to her father. Glenn learned the family business from Melvin, and when the couple established their own home between Lenoir and Blowing Rock, Glenn and Lula opened Bolick Pottery, extending the geographic reach of Owens' influenced pottery. Lula and Glenn hold well-attended kiln openings and annual festivals that include music, foodways and other activities. Glenn and Lula also have been regulars at the Village of Yesteryear at the NC State Fair for nearly thirty years. Lula was the recipient of the Brown Hudson Folklore award from the N.C. Folklore Society.

Glenn Bolick (1939-)
A talented musician and storyteller from Watauga County, it's no surprise that Glenn would take to producing art in another traditional form—the pottery of his wife, Lula Owens' family. Glenn is well known for his bean pots and his pinch-handled platters. A fourth-generation sawmill man, Glenn writes songs detailing his life's experiences. In addition to old time music played on fiddle, banjo and guitar, Glenn also plays the saw. He was the recipient of the 1998 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the N.C. Folklore Society.

Janet Bolick Calhoun (1965-)
Although she grew up away from her Piedmont-based cousins, like them Janet learned the pottery trade from her parents, Lula Belle Owens Bolick and Glenn Bolick. In addition to her pottery making skills, Janet's keen sense of style helps the family stay responsive to the varying tastes they encounter with their tourist-based, craft-loving clientele. She married Mike in 1986, and they opened the aptly named Traditions Pottery near Blowing Rock in 1991. This successful venture is now located in Blowing Rock's central business district. Janet and Mike often include music jam sessions at kiln openings and as summer programs, continuing the legacy of Janet's musical father as well as the pottery traditions of her mother's family. Janet can be found each year at the N.C. State Fair's Village of Yesteryear.

Michael Harrison Calhoun (1963-)
Mike Calhoun was not a potter when he married Janet Bolick. He hung sheet rock. Every night for the first two years of their marriage Mike visited Janet's parents at their Bolick Pottery and practiced turning until midnight. He is now an experienced, creative and proficient potter. Mike enjoys making face jugs. Mike attends the N.C. State Fair's Village of Yesteryear.

Viola Owens Brady (1946-1989)
Viola Owens Brady -nicknamed Pot- made important contributions to the family business. After her marriage to Allen Brady and the birth of her children, Lisa Annette and Rodney Allen, in the early 1970s, Viola kept the books at Jugtown, tended the shop and revealed her talent for pottery decoration. She worked closely with Nancy Sweezey during the Country Roads Inc. era, developing the delicate design patterns of wheat stalks, birds and dogwood blossoms that became hallmarks of the Jugtown dinnerware of that era. Along with her sisters, Viola made occasional chickens and pigs. Viola died of cancer in 1989. Viola's daughter Lisa, with support of the family established "Pots for the Cure," a cancer research fundraiser held in 2008 to honor her mother. Viola's sister Hilda Peterson's sheep on display in this exhibit were made for the fundraiser.

Ina Owens Bolick (1945-)
Ina was making pots at her father Melvin L. Owens' pottery by her early teens. Like all her brothers and sisters, she was well versed in the hard work required to keep a family pottery going. Through her sister Lula's relationship to Glenn Bolick, Ina met his brother, Dell Vernon. They married in 1962, and Ina gave birth to Leah, Brian and Brent. Ina and Dell live next door to Lula and Glenn off Hwy 321 near Lenoir. She turns pots for Lula's pottery business. Ina is well known for the clay animals she makes. These are fired and sold at the shops of her brothers and sisters.

Hilda Owens Peterson (1940-)
Hilda Owens Peterson's childhood resembled those of her brothers and sisters, doing chores around the pottery and learning the family business. Hilda left home and married at age nineteen. She contributes animal figurines for her brothers' and sister's potteries. The sheep displayed in this exhibition were made for "Pots for the Cure," a cancer fundraiser held in honor of Viola Owens Brady.

Boyd Lee Owens (1948-)
Boyd turned 12 the year his older brothers took over operations at Jugtown. Boyd stayed with his father Melvin, learning all aspects of the family business, and in 1975 Melvin turned the business over to him. As his father declared, the Owens Pottery operated by Boyd and his sister, Nancy Owens Brewer, is situated on the same spot as their grandfather James H. Owen's shop, making this the oldest continuing operating pottery in the region. Now expanded and renovated, Boyd's family business thrives with a loyal customer base that returns again and again for the mugs, soup bowls, pie plates, candlesticks, pitchers and casseroles that line the shelves. The incandescent glow of red-glazed Owens ware at Christmastime has become part of many families' traditions. Boyd has two sons, Jody Lee and Jonathan Boyd. Jody helps mix clay and makes pottery when he has the time.

Jody Lee Owens (1972-)
Jody grew up around his father Boyd's pottery shop, and now works for Randolph County. After helping mix clay and other jobs around the shop on weekends, he began regularly making candy dishes in 1993. Jody and wife Christel were married in 2003, and have three children, Kaylee Elizabeth, Samuel Kane and Kassady Marie.

Nancy Owens Brewer (1953-)
According to her older brother Vernon, M.L. Owens' youngest daughter Nancy has been turning pots since before 1960. She assisted her father at the family pottery throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Nancy married Gary Brewer in 1975, the same year her brother Boyd took over management at the Owens Pottery. Nancy remains the principal potter for Boyd, working closely with him on all aspects of the business, including decorating pots with skilled brush work. She has raised her own two children, Laurie Ann and Gary Kyle, in a pottery milieu.

Billy Ray Hussey (1955-)
Billy Ray Hussey grew up in the midst of Owens family potteries. His mother, Martha Ann, was the daughter of Melvin Owens' sister, Ella, and Billy Ray spent his summers and after-school hours helping out—and learning the family business— at M.L. Owens' pottery. He helped with the Jugtown restorations and turned pots for Boyd Owens in the 1970s and 1980s. Billy Ray displayed a keen interest and talent for sculpting, and has received critical acclaim for his skillful and imaginative figures. Billy Ray formulates his glazes from lead, alkaline, and salt glazes and fires in wood fueled kilns. Billy Ray and his wife, Susan operate the Southern Folk Pottery Collector's Society, an organization that has provided exhibitions of traditional potters, gallery talks by noted scholars, and pottery auctions that are always accompanied by catalogs providing thorough documentation.

Source: Sally Peterson, Folklife Program, N.C. Arts Council.
The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina's arts, history and culture. http://www.ncculture.com/

Owen/Owens

2009-01-25T10:10:00.000-05:00

SEAGROVE, N.C. -- This comprehensive exhibition of one of North Carolina's most renowned family of potters opens today with 100 pieces of pottery from six generations of the Owen/Owens family.
The exhibition runs through April 3, 2009.

The exhibition also features family photos and bios telling the story of potters whose ware transformed from everyday kitchen use to large-scale decorative pieces displayed in the lobbies of major hotels including one in Tokyo, Japan.

The center hosted an artists' reception January 17th from 2 to 4 p.m. The reception was free and open to the public.
Owen and Owens family members brought their instruments and played bluegrass and old time Appalachian music.

The exhibitions starts with two brothers—James J. Owen and Joseph Owen—farmers that supplemented their income in the 1800's by selling jugs, churns and other wares to sell or trade in the local community.
They are credited with starting the family business by creating functional items mainly used for food preparation and preservation and to serve food.
The items in the show range from a preserve jar made by James J. Owen, born in 1830 and several pieces from recent college graduate Travis Owens, the first Owens potter to actually be born and raised in Jugtown.
"Families of artists are a particularly exotic and appealing phenomena. The Owen/Owens family of Seagrove, North Carolina is such a family," says Charlotte Vestal Brown, the show's curator and the author of "The Remarkable Potters of Seagrove." Brown is also the director of Gregg Museum of Art & Design at N.C. State University in Raleigh.
"Beginning with Joseph Owen (1823-1905) this extended family has crafted pottery for at least six generations," Brown says. "Other Seagrove area families share a similar history. Aumans, Coles, Teagues. Lucks and Chriscoes also produced utilitarian earthenware and stoneware. Their collective presence forms a larger sample of potters whose practice continued over several generations, and suggests that pottery making was the result of circumstances—nurture—as well as human nature."
"It's a very scholarly exhibition," Brown says. "There is so much we don't know and so much to know. It starts to fill in the missing pieces. It touches on all of the Owens who made pottery, the circumstances they lived and made work."

Ben Owen III says this exhibition really helps to show how generations were influenced. His ancestors made pots out of necessity—those pieces evolved into more decorative pieces because of outside influences and other cultures including those of China, Japan and Korea. "You see bits and pieces of these influences from the past in the intricate details from the way a handle is applied to how a lid is made."
"From decade to decade the Owen/Owens family has created an enduring legacy of art and craft by absorbing change and using it, by finding the energy of new hybrids along with the power of persistent, internal consistency," Brown says. "They have lived through good economic times and bad times too...Joseph's descendants have succeeded in the face of radical social, cultural and demographic change at both the local and regional levels. The Owen(s) family has endured like no other."
In fact, several of the family members are recognized as world-class potters including Vernon Owens, Pamela Owens, Ben Owens I, Ben Owens III and Billy Ray Hussey.
Owen says what distinguishes an Owen pot from others potters is the form and shape. That's the hallmark of their family's pottery. Owen quotes his grandfather saying, "It's easy in life to make things complicated but it's a challenge to keep things simple."

Admission and Tours
The price of the exhibition is $2 for adults, $1 for 9th to 12th grade students, and free for children from kindergarten to 8th grade. Free for members. The center's hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The NCPC is located at 250 East Ave., in Seagrove. The center's telephone number is 336-873-8430 or check them out on the web at www.ncpotterycenter.com.

For a sneak preview of the NCPC and this exhibition, watch the Museums In A Minute spotlight on the NCPC. The Web based promotion includes a one-minute video tour of the center's permanent collection with potter Pam Owens serving as the narrator.

Related Web Sites
Seagrove Area Potters Associationwww.discoverseagrove.com
Homegrown Handmadewww.homegrownhandmade.com
Randolph Arts Guildwww.randolphartsguild.com
Visit Seagroveheartofnorthcarolina.com/cities-and-towns/seagrove.htm
VisitNCwww.visitnc.com
Museum of NC Traditional Pottery www.seagrovepotteryheritage.com/index.html
An electionic press kit for the exhibition is available at www.ncarts.org/potteryexhibition.
The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina's arts, history and culture. www.ncculture.com

Winners of pottery raffle for the NCPC

2009-01-17T09:44:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to Lisa Kellner who won the raffle of the crystalline pot donated by Eck McCanless of Dover Pottery

Congratulations to Steve and Karen Garrison
who won the raffle of the pot
donated by Michael Mahan of
From the Ground Up.

The Family Business

2009-01-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

The Family Business
175 Years of Pottery
by the
Owen/Owens Families
Showing in gallery one and two
January 14th thru April 3rd, 2009
Please join us for the Artist Reception
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
2-4pm
Reception is free and open to the public

The JB Cole 1940 Catalog

2008-12-10T13:00:00.001-05:00

by Jay Henderson

One of the nicer finds for any collector or student of vintage North Carolina art pottery is a copy of the 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue.[1] I am fortunate to own an original copy of this well-made, paperback booklet. There is also a reprint, issued in 1997 by Holly Hill Pottery with some added material, which occasionally crops up. The reprint is well done but suffers some loss of detail in the process of reproducing the 1940 version.

The J. B. Cole catalog itself is not dated, but it is typically found with a folded-insert price list dated June 1st, 1940. If there was an earlier or later price list, no sample has surfaced. The price list, by the way, should be read as a curiosity; otherwise, it may drive you mad to realize that a 16-inch Waymon Cole rat-tail-handled floor vase, which would sell for several hundred dollars today, went for $1.25 in 1940. If only . . . .

The catalog features monochrome photographs of 526 pieces and sets pottery of all descriptions, ranging in size from 1-3/4" miniatures made by Nell Graves to a yard-high Rebecca pitcher by Waymon Cole. Each piece or set is separately identified by a designator like the following examples: W 80 - 5"; N 235 - 3-1/2"; G 278 - 11"; or B 513 - 7". The letter W indicates Waymon Cole; the letter N indicates Nell Cole Graves; the letter G indicates Phil Graves; and the letter B indicates Bascom King, in each case identifying the person who would turn the piece or set. The letter is followed by a serial number, and then a hyphen and a number indicating the height of the finished piece in inches.

The serial numbers run from 1 through 524; in two cases, errors were made in the numbering and a letter "A" was added before the designator (AB 422 and AB 453). The serial numbers are grouped by potter, with a few exceptions. The numbers for Waymon Cole begin at 1 and continue through 177; however, four Nell Graves pieces were photographed out of order (N 47, N 48, N 72, N 120). There are other out-of-order pieces here and there. When these are accounted for, the number of pieces and sets by potter runs as follows: Waymon Cole, 174; Nell Graves, 86; Phil Graves, 153; and Bascom King, 113. I am convinced that some errors were not caught and there are a few pieces which may be mis-identified; comparing W 93 - 7-1/2" with the very similar N 241 - 3-1/2", for example, leads me to believe that the un-Waymonlike 93 piece was actually turned by Nell.

The high number of pieces attributed to Waymon Cole appears to have been the result of his taking over certain forms formerly turned by his father, J. B. Cole, who had quit turning before 1940. For example, known surviving pieces of W 31 - 15-1/2" are reliably attributed to J. B. Cole. A comparison of one of the J. B. Cole pieces with a W 31 turned by Waymon reveals characteristic differences, such as the difference in handle formation.

The lower number of pieces listed for Nell is probably related to the size of her wares. Because Nell turned many small and miniature pieces, her father modified her wheel to make it more suitable for that specialty. A riser was added to the wheelhead (this is shown in the photograph of Nell in the catalog, reproduced at the end of this article) and Nell's wheel was belt-driven by an electric motor, powered by a generator. These modifications were useful for making 3-1/2 inch pitchers and vases, but at the same time limited the maximum width of the base of a piece and probably also the weight of the ball of clay that could be used on the modified wheelhead.

The 1940 Catalogue identification system is very helpful for identifying the work of the J. B. Cole potters.[2] While many pieces are easy to pin down, such as the massive Waymon Cole floor vases and the tiny Nell Cole items, others are more difficult. Knowing the approximate height of the finished piece is very helpful. The picture of the form, the height, and the designation of the potter assist not only in distinguishing among pieces made at J. B. Cole's Pottery but also among the many similar pieces made by competitors. The J. B. Cole potters made pots to sell, and some sold more than others - - and therefore, more examples of the popular wares survived to the present time. Some forms, like W 80, W 157, W 177, N 183, N 230, G 354, G 395, B 466 and B 516, come up for sale frequently and are familiar to collectors and students. Other forms are rare and the catalog is invaluable for confirmation of their authenticity.

Also useful is the catalog's listing of colors: "yellow, white, rose, dark blue, Alice blue, periwinkle blue, turquoise, blue-green, enamel-green, peacock blue, blue-and-white, orange, rust, and antique." As with the forms, some of these colors were popular and some were not. Alice blue (a pale, bluish-gray) seems to be rare, while orange (usually called "chrome red") is relatively common.

Neither the forms in the catalog or the glaze colors should be considered a complete listing. Very early pieces were finished with commercial glazes, and new forms and glazes were developed over time, with some shapes being dropped and new ones being added, in addition to changes in the making of established forms. A major example of this is the Waymon Cole signature piece, the Aladdin's Lamp teapot; it had not been developed in 1940, although the bowl-vase on which it was based is in the catalog (W 6 - 5"). The 1940 Catalogue is nonetheless a valuable guidebook for pre-WWII J. B. Cole Pottery wares.

One should exercise caution when identifying post-WWII J. B. Cole pieces. The fact that a form appears in the 1940 Catalogue does not mean that it was made before World War II; other characteristics must be taken into account. Having a copy of the 1940 Catalogue won't make you an expert. Inspecting many pieces of J. B. Cole's Pottery wares is the only way to achieve sufficient knowledge.

NOTES: [1] The name "J. B. Cole's Pottery" was used until J. B. Cole died; Waymon Cole and Nell Graves bought out the heirship interests of their siblings and changed the name to "J. B. Cole Pottery." The spelling "Catalogue" is used in the 1940 booklet.

[2] There are smaller catalogs, one known as the 1932 J. B. Cole catalog and another known for C. C. Cole; these are very hard to come by and as far as I know have not been reprinted.

This article originally appeared in Backcountry Notes.

The Staff of the NCPC

2008-11-28T09:02:00.000-05:00

I found the staff of the North Carolina Pottery Center tucked away staying warm on the Friday night of the Celebration.
The NCPC was invited to set up a booth to sell books and stands.
We have a very hard working staff of three who keep the NCPC open and rolling along.

OPEN:
Tuesdays - Saturdays
10:00 am to 4:00 pm

ADMISSION
$2 - adults
$1 - students 9th-12th grade,
free - students Kindergarten-8th
free - NCPC members.

For more information call (336) 873-8430.
Email: ncpc@atomic.net

In the case of inclement weather, the NC Pottery Center follows the closing schedule of the Randolph County School system. Please call ahead if you are uncertain of the weather in our area.
**NEW**
Now visit us on Saturday’s for free pottery making demonstrations with a local potter.
See the front desk upon arrival for further information.

David Garner recipient of Craftsperson of the Year award.

2008-11-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

David Garner from Turn and Burn Pottery, Seagrove North Carolina received the 2008 Crafts person of the Year award from the Village of Yesteryear, North Carolina State Fair.
For David this award signifies his years of hard work in the community of Seagrove and the 20 years he has participated as an artist in the NC State Fair.
Congratulations David.

From Tom Starland: Carolina Arts Unleashed

2008-11-17T17:05:00.000-05:00

Save the Cheerleader - Save the Planet
This was an interesting catch phrase to promote one of the seasons of the NBC TV show - Heroes. I’ve never watched that program, but I liked the phrase. I’ve used it before in commentary as it shows how interconnected we all are - one person to the next, one person to the environment, one person to the economy, etc.
Like - save your environment - save the planet; save a hungry child - save the next world leader; and save one species - save mankind. Of course some people have been saying - save the banks - save the economy or save US automakers - save millions of jobs. It just goes to show that not all combinations make sense. With some things it’s save them once - save them again and again and once more for good measure.
I’m offering the phrase - save the NC Potter Center - save Seagrove potters too.
Not too long ago we told you how the financially strapped NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, battled to raise $100,000 to keep its doors open. The Center with the help of potters around the Carolinas and pottery lovers raised almost $125,000 in three months during a downturned economy. This was hopefully a temporary situation as it is hoped that the State of NC will eventually take the NC Potter Center under its financial wing - much like it did the troubled Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, last year. But, we have all seen recently what a difference a few months can make.
A lot of that help came from local Seagrove area potters - donating pots for auctions, raffles, and for benefit sales - as well as blogging to get the word out and keeping people informed about the fundraising efforts. A lot of other people helped too.
But, now these same potters are preparing for their biggest financial event of the year - for themselves - the first annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters, taking place Nov. 21 - 23, 2008, at the historic Luck’s Beans cannery in Seagrove. The event starts off on Friday night with an opening Gala which will offer attendees a first chance at special auction items and first chance to purchase from participating potters - over 60 in all. Check out the website for complete details, there will be a lot of stuff going on. There is also a link on that site for accommodations in the area.
This will be a special weekend in Seagrove offering the beginning pottery collector a great introduction and the seasoned collector a chance to update their collections with the newest pots - straight from area kilns - still warm. Believe me, from what I have read about some of the preparations for this important weekend - some pots might be downright hot.
It will also be a great time to visit the recently saved Pottery Center. Admission is free this weekend, but you can still make a donation. And, from what I’ve heard - there may even be another pottery festival going on at the same time in Seagrove.
The important thing is that this holiday shopping season is going to be a critical time for all artists. It will determine how well the holidays and their future year will be. Support them if you can and end up with some beautiful art created by a Carolina artist.

Watch North Carolina Weekend Thursday night

2008-11-16T19:22:00.000-05:00

This coming week on Thursday night there will be a brief segment about the NCPC
on the show UNC-TV NC weekend.
This show will air at 9pm on Thursday, November 20th.
We hope you will tune in.
We will be open next week end, with free admission, please stop in the Center to see the current exhibitions.
Also- stop in at our booth at the Celebration Of Seagove Potters over the week-end.
Here is what you will find there:
History, education and demonstration at the upcoming Celebration of Seagrove Potters
Seagrove, NC. November 21-23 2008
Children have a special area where they can try their hand in clay and purchase “Kid Priced” pieces of pottery. The proceeds of the children’s area will be donated to the arts programs of the local elementary schools.
The North Carolina Pottery Center booth will be staffed by knowledgeable volunteers and will exhibit historic pots, provide information on NC Pottery and sell books, catalogs and stands. Representing the NCPC booth is noted author Terry Zug, UNC-Chapel Hill professor and historian. Terry will speak Saturday on the significance of preserve jars from the Seagrove area. He describes Seagrove potters in his book, Turners and Burners, as “…the intangible qualities of the shops-qualities that only emerged gradually and increased the difficulties of classification. Most apparent is the pervasive family orientation. - And reinforcing these clay clans is the deep sense of place.
Finally, there is the potter's historical self-consciousness. It is a genuine sense of the past that gives pride and purpose and guidance to the present.”

Also on Saturday, Pam Owens, of Jugtown Pottery will discuss the history the Early Jugtown Pottery.
On Sunday, Linda Carnes McNaughton will discuss the history of “cultured cabbage” and how it relates specifically to stoneware jars.
Later that day Ray Owen will talk about Ray Auman and the Auman Pottery.

Throughout the weekend Seagrove potters will be giving demonstrations.
On Saturday, 5th generation potter, Sid Luck will share Seagrove history and why Seagrove has been designated the Pottery Capital of the US.
Sid is currently the administrator of TAPS (Traditional Arts Programs for Students) a North Carolina Arts Council initiative. The North Carolina Pottery Center is the site for the Seagrove TAPS program.
Traditional potters from the Seagrove community of Moore and Randolph counties instruct fifth grade students from Seagrove Elementary School in numerous traditional clay processes, including clay preparation, hand building, wheel turning, glazing and firing pottery forms drawn from traditional use and practice.
Other demonstrating potters throughout the weekend include:
Charlie Riggs, Eck McCanless, Jared Zehmer, David Stuempfle, Craig Kovack, Jeffery Dean, Randy James, Ben Owen, David Fernandez, Chris Luther and Michael Mahan.

Saturday, November 22 the show is open from 9 AM to 6 PM
Sunday, November 23 10 AM to 4 PM
A second fundraising auction will be held Saturday, at 4 PM offering pieces donated by participating and other local artists.
A wide variety of food and beverages are available.
Admission is $5 and children 12 and under are free.
Attendees are encouraged to bring a canned food item for our food drive.

Thanking the Donors

2008-11-06T18:25:00.000-05:00

We would like to thank the following people for all their help in making the Fundraiser a sucess.
We will continue to raise funds to keep the NCPC open.
It is our hope the NCPC will be here for future generations to leran from and enjoy.

Auction of E. James Collection
Marty Aden
Ross Allen
Marilyn Arthur
Paulette Badgett
Mr. and Mrs. Talmadge Baker
Michael Barber
Lisa Barnhardt
Cosetllo Barnes
Amy Bauman
Hayne Bayless
Charlotte Beckerdite
Maryanne Bice
Sharon Biggs
Jennie Bireline
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bluethenthal
Audrey Booth
Daisy Wade Bridges
Jane Bruce
Kimberly Campbell
Blanche Capel
Linda Carnes-McNaughton/Kirk McNaughton
John Chapman
Carol Clark
Mr. & Mrs. J.C. Cooke
Sylvia Coppola
Stephen Dean
Gail Matthews DeNatale
Margori Devine
Arthur Dube
Judith Duff
David Egner
Kim Ellington
Dan Finch and Amy Farabow-Finch
Giff Fisher
Pepper Fluke
Phillip Fulton
Jay Gardner
John Garland and Mary Paul
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Gavin
Arthur N.Gerber
Shelton & Carol Gorelick
Mr. & Mrs. Clarence Goss Jr.
Jo Grimley
Mr. and Mrs. Ron Grudziecki
Carmen Guy
James R.Hackney
Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Haigh, Jr.
Dolores Hall
Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Hamlet
Lee Hansley
Frank Harmon
Patrici Hart
George Hayes
Richard F.Hazel
Caywood Hendricks
Mr. & Mrs. Ed Henneke
Dr.'s Doug and Kathy Hepler
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Herman
Mark Hewitt - Raffle
Mark and Meredith Heywood
Tandy Hobbs
Mr. and Mrs. Gene Holder
Betty Holland
Dwight Holland
John Hopkins & Laurie House
Philip Hubbard
Nicole Hudson
Dr. and Mrs. Allen Huffman
Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish
Ikuko Hussey
Jodi Ingold
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Irvin
Marjorie James
Donald Johns
Ellen Johnson
Janet Isola-Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. Walter Jacobs
Joe and Tonda Jeffcoat
Nicholas Joerling
Matt Jones
Mr. & Mrs. Ben E. Jordan, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Juliano
Mr. & Mrs. Glenn Kahn
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Kay
Albert Keiser
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Keogh
Michael Kline
Stephen Knight
Elizabeth Knott
Jack D. Lail
Jane Lappin
Dona Lerner
Suze Lindsay
Barry Lockman
Mr. & Mrs. David Lotocki
Mary Lynn Lotocki & Harold Johnson
Michael Loven
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Luck
Alma Mather
Patricia Marshall
Carolyn McDermott and Fred Shuker
Carol G.McDevitt
Carol McKnight
Polly McLaughlin
Staci Meyer
Ronald Meyers
Charles Millard
Eleanor Miller
Andrea Motes
Don Moffit & Sidney Cruze
Barbara and Suzanne Murphy
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Nelson
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Nesbit
Robert Otterbourg
Pat Palmer & Dan Livingstone
Marilyn Palsha
Jean Parish
Parker Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. William B. Parker
Daniel Patterson
Jeanne Patterson
Richard Patterson
Hassel and Rose Patterson
Lara Pavanelli
Cynthia Payne
Mr. and Mrs. Dick Peterson
Roberta Price
George Rector
Jane Riley
Ann Ring
Mr. & Mrs. Sherwin Rodin
Sarah A.Roe
Michael Rutkowsky
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Salamy
Patricia Saling
Maryanne Sanders
Eugenia Schwartz
Ju-ian Shen
Wayne Shiver
Nancy Sidebottom
Clyde Smith
Eddie Smith Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Edward Smithwick
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Sobeck
Davor Solter
Elaine Spallone
Mary and Leroy Spangler
Spruce Pine Fundraiser and Raffle
David Starkey
Tom Starland
Sandy Steele
Peggy Steffel
Karen Swager
Nancy Sweezy
Kristine Tedder
Dan & Hat Thompson
Gail Tilton
Phyllis Toon
David Voorhees
Charles Waldren
Josie Walter
Mr. and Mrs. John Watts
Conrad Weiser
Patti Carbone Wellen
Margare Wiebe
Dina Wilde-Ramsing
Janice Williams
Timothy Williams
Verna Witt
Joanne Wood
Eugene Young
Ann Zelle
Charles (Terry) Zug & Daphne Cruze

Contributions Attributed to Memberships

Virginia Ainslie
Marilyn Bland
Tim Blackburn
Dan Blackmon
Bulldog Pottery
Chad Brown
Robin Cadigan
Phillip Carl
Chuck Chamberlain
Phyllis Clark
Lucy Carol Davis
Brian Fields
Jane Finch
Justin Finch
Dan Finch
Carol Freeman
Linda Goodwin
Mark Gordon
Benjamin Gufford
Alvin Headen
Anna Henderson
Ed & Gloria Henneke
Mark Hewitt
Anna Heywood
Michael Hunt
Michael Kline
Diane Lee
Barry Lockman
Bob Meier
Jon Miller
Pat Montgomery
Mr. & Mrs.Milton Chriscoe
Mr. & Mrs.Calvin Holland
Mr. & Mrs.Richard Jacobs
Mr. & Mrs.David Jones
Mr. & Mrs.Douglas Nodine
Mr.& Mrs.Benjamin Burns
Ben Owen
Vernon & Pam Owens
Sharon Pate
Print Shop Of West Ashley Inc.
Donna Proctor
Sandra Roberts
Ruth Sachs
Steve McNutt & Mary Bishop
Lori Theriault
Dan Triece
Eliza Zug Cox

Contributions Attributed to Brick Sales

Mr. & Mrs.David Jones
Steve McNutt & Mary Bishop
Sheila Ray
Jack & Linda Stec

NCPC invitation to be a part of Celebration of Seagrove Potters

2008-11-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

The NCPC will have a booth at the "Celebration of Seagrove Potters" in November. They will be selling books and pottery related items. Proceeds go towards the daily operations and educational programs of the NCPC .

In the past few months the NCPC fundraising Committee raised over 120K. This will allow the NCPC to continue to operate, but we should all be aware that fund raising will need to continue.

The next fundraiser for the NCPC will be in the Spring.

We will post more information later about the "Faces For the NCPC".

Meanwhile come out in support of the Seagrove potters and stop by the NCPC booth and see what they have out- and join- your membership is important to keeping the tradition alive.

NCPC Tile project with local Artist Laura Avery

2008-10-29T07:03:00.000-04:00

Laura Avery from Avery Pottery and Tileworks was chosen to complete a tile project with our local Seagrove Elementary School.
This is the finished project hung in the Seagrove Library which sits beside the school on Old Plank Road.
Over a period of several weeks, every 4Th grade class was escorted over to the NCPC where they watched a demonstration from a local potter and completed one to three tiles for the project.
The grant designed for this project was to reach the local community; to better educate and expose the school children to their local arts community which they live in.
Courtesy of the NC Arts Council.

Bulldog Pottery's Fossil Fish Jug raises money for NCPC

2008-10-26T12:31:00.000-04:00

Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke of Bulldog Pottery donated this wonderful large fossil Jug to the North Carolina Pottery Center Fundraiser.
On Saturday the Jug was purchased by collector and NCPC supporter Nancy Sidebottom.
This purchase provids the Pottery Center with an additional $600.00 to add to their fundraising efforts.

The generosity of the arts community and especially the North Carolina Potters has been instrumental in making the Fundraising efforts a success.

Along with the money Bulldog Pottery will be donating a check was presented to the NCPC last week by Micheal Kline for $1,941.00.
The money raised was from the raffle by potters Gay Smith, Nick Joerling, Suze Lindsay and Kent McLaughlin, at a total of $1,000.00. Winners are Dorothy and Clyde Collins, hooray!
The Pottery sold at the October Potters market brought a total of $941.00.
Here are the names of generous, donating potters:
Norm Schulman, Cynthia Bringle, Jane Pieser, Stanley Mace Andersen, Pam Brewer, Claudia Dunaway, Jon Ellenbogen & Becky Plummer, Becky Gray, Michael Kline, Linda McFarling, Jim & Shirl Parmentier, Ken Sedberry, Jenny Lou Sherburne, Gay Smith, Joy Tanner, Mark Tomzcak.

From the fundraising committee, staff and board of the NCPC Thank you one and all!

Exhibitions- NCPC

2008-10-23T07:17:00.000-04:00

Table Wares of Early Twentieth Century Potters

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008-JANUARY 10, 2009

Preview Exhibit of Faces for the Center.
All pieces in this exhibit have a face and all will be for sale.
This is a fun and diverse exhibit of pieces from potters throughout NC.
In April 2009, date to be announced, the Center will host a party for the event.

Owen/ Owens Family of Potters
with the tentative opening reception on the afternoon of Saturday, January 17th.
JANUARY 14, 2009 - APRIL 3, 2009

The Power of Potters - In Saving the NC Pottery Center

2008-10-21T20:35:00.000-04:00

The Power of Potters - In Saving the NC Pottery Center

By, Tom Starland

October 21st, 2008

Don’t mess with a North Carolina potter! Or their Pottery Center. At least that’s the word I have for anyone doubting the importance of the NC Pottery Center located in the small community of Seagrove, NC. I have just received word that $100,000 + has been raised to save the NC Pottery Center.
It was just three months ago when I decided to stop by the Pottery Center to see an exhibition of pottery by Native American Indians in hopes of doing a review for my new blog on my way to Greensboro, NC. It was an excellent show and while I was there almost an hour - no where did I see or hear any indication that the Center was in the middle of an area-wide controversy or financial trouble. It wasn’t until I arrived in Greensboro that a friend asked me about the troubles at the Pottery Center based on a newspaper article he read there in Greensboro.
I went online and found his concerns were true. There was big trouble in Seagrove. And, as I researched the issue I learned that all of the fuss was being caused by a few individuals who were more interested in a power grab than what was good for Seagrove, the Pottery Center and the potters in the area. Based on some of the outlandish claims being made by these individuals - which I knew to be untrue from my own experience in dealing with the Pottery Center I decided to stand on the side of local potters in Seagrove and the Pottery Center. It was just a ridiculous notion that we could loose this marvelous ten year old center because of the back-room dealings of a few.
And, I wasn’t the only person who couldn’t imagine losing this wonderful center of pottery history and resource center for contemporary pottery in not just Seagrove, but North Carolina, and the Carolinas. In three months, during what could be easily termed as the worst economic time in the US - hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of people put their money in the kitty to help save the NC Pottery Center.
Leading the charge was the Board of the NC Pottery Center and local potters networking with potters in North Carolina and eventually potters everywhere. And, the public responded by sending in checks, making electronic donations, purchasing pots that were donated to help benefit the Center, buying raffle tickets and making auction bids.
There is no doubt that a few individuals did more in this effort. Dr. Everette James and his wife Nancy Farmer donated part of their pottery collection to be auctioned off to benefit the Pottery Center. Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales, Ltd. in Hillsborough, NC, donated their services for that auction which raised $35,000. An anonymous NC couple offered a $10,000 challenge contribution to cap the Pottery Center’s fund drive once the Center raised $90,000 in honor of Drs. Everette James and Nancy Farmer. I’m sure there where others who deserve mention, but I just don’t have their names at this time. But everyone who made a contribution - no matter how small or even if it was in just spreading the word - they made a difference. They saved the NC Pottery Center - for now.
The ultimate goal is for the State of North Carolina to take over operation of the NC Pottery Center under the North Carolina Arts Council - a state arts agency. But, under the current economy - that might take some time yet, so the fight might not be over just yet. A fundraising goal has been met, but the long-term future is still unknown, but it does look brighter today.
Another contributing factor in the fundraising effort was blogging potters around the Carolinas. When the call when out for help - the word spread fast and far. I had a hard time keeping up with all the things that were going on and I eventually came to rely on Meredith Heywood of Whynot Pottery in Seagrove, who was blogging on her own blog (http://whynotpotteryblog.blogspot.com/) and eventually set up another blog - Potters for the NC Pottery Center (http://pottersforncpc.blogspot.com/). She had lots of help from others who were feeding her info or helping with the blog. And, what’s really amazing is that during all this mess - she and her husband, also a potter, were dealing with rebuilding their studio which burned down in July.
Also let’s don’t forget that there were a few victims during this battle to save the Pottery Center. First and foremost was the loss of the Center’s director, Denny Mecham. The Center’s board in an effort cut expensive had to cut Mecham’s position to a part-time level and then all together. Mecham was unable to wait and see how the fundraising effort would go, and took a position as the new executive director of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi. Talented people don’t have to wait too long for good job offers. The Potter Center’s exhibition schedule was also adjusted, putting major shows on the back burner. And, although some say all publicity is good - it’s not always good for everyone. The anxiety levels of area potters caught up in the controversy has taken its toll - causing some to take sides in a very small community.
What have I learned from all this? One - Potters have a strong network and sense of community. Two - If you work hard for something - a good cause - people will respond and help, even in tough times. Three - the power of the blog in spreading the word about issues. And, Four - just another reminder - the arts are important to people.
Although the $100,000 goal has been met - if you’re so inclined and have the funds - I would still advise anyone to make a contribution or participate in one of the still ongoing fundraisers. It won’t hurt and I’m sure it can be put to good use.
Now, go visit the Center you helped save. The doors are open

Press Release – North Carolina Pottery Center Announces Fundraising Success

2008-10-16T16:26:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From: North Carolina Pottery Center, Seagrove, NC

Press Release – North Carolina Pottery Center Announces Fundraising Success

Despite an economy that seems to be “going to pot,” the recent fundraising campaign organized to support the North Carolina Pottery Center fired-up the North Carolina pottery community and raised significantly more than the original target of $100,000.

To date, a general fundraising letter has raised $48,500, a recent auction at Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales in Hillsborough of old NC pots centered on the legendary collection of Dr. Everette James, raised $35,000, the North Carolina Arts Council has provided a $25,000 grant, and an anonymous donor has capped the fundraising drive with a generous $10,000 donation in honor of Dr's. Everette James and Nancy Farmer. That make’s a total of $118,500.

The Pottery Center, located in Seagrove, is an anchor for the ceramic traditions of North Carolina, and provides a focal point for the contemporary expression of the state’s ceramic heritage. These funds will keep the Pottery Center open for the next fiscal year, enabling it to fulfill its mission to “promote public awareness and appreciation of the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina through educational programs, public services, collection and preservation, and research and documentation.”

Over13,000 people have visited the Pottery Center during each of the last several years, with domestic visitors traveling form as far away as Alaska, California, North Dakota, and Maine (in fact there have been visitors from every state, including Hawaii), while overseas visitors from New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, and throughout Europe have also enjoyed access to this remarkable institution. Such global interest in what is going on in the tiny community of Seagrove (located south of Asheboro, not far from the NC Zoo) is a testament to the enduring power of North Carolina’s pots and potters. These visitors provide a much needed economic stimulus not only to the Seagrove pottery community and surrounding businesses, but also to the wider pottery community throughout the state - in the Catawba Valley region, around Penland in the mountains, as well as Down East.

In his recent book on Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain, renowned Pennsylvania potter Jack Troy declares that “if North America has a ‘pottery state,’ it must be North Carolina. . . . There is probably no other state with such a highly developed pottery-consciousness.” Articles extolling the local traditions regularly appear in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times. The Pottery Center’s recent fundraising success has been spontaneous, generous, and widespread, and is a heartwarming recognition of the continuing joy people derive from the friendly beauty residing in each and every pot made in North Carolina.

The Pottery Center would like to thank its many supporters for their passionate commitment to the state’s ceramic heritage, and extends an invitation to visitors to travel to the Center to see for themselves the award-winning building and its collection of magnificent pots, and also encourages pottery lovers to continue their ongoing support of the many potters in Seagrove and throughout the state.

News about Fundraising for the NCPC

2008-10-14T06:22:00.000-04:00

Last night I received news the fundraising for the NCPC had meet its goal.
The goal set forth at the end of June was to raise 50, 000.00 at the least but 100,000.00 if possible.
The word last night was over 100K with money still to come in.

I had word from Gay Smith that the raffle for the pottery made by Gay, Nick ,Suzy and Kent had brought in a thousand dollars, which will be sent to the NCPC this week.
I hope to post the winner soon.
The October Potters Market has also brought a total of 667.00 so far.

There are many folks who donated money, pottery and time to bring forth the funds to keep the NCPC alive.
I want to thank them all for their efforts.

Also, I would like to thank those folks behind the scenes who made this possible.
The fundraising committee, the board and the staff of the NCPC.
Without the guidance and efforts put forth by these folks we would not be here today.
Congratulations one and all for a job well done.

Spruce Pine Potters Market helps the North Carolina Pottery Center

2008-10-12T08:39:00.000-04:00

Michael Kline's Bird Jar : The proceeds of this purchase will go to the NCPC

The Spruce Pine Potters Market is taking place this weekend. Most of the contemporary potters there have designated one piece each to the NCPC and will donate the proceeds to the NCPC.

Spruce Pine Potters Market October 10-11

2008-10-09T16:44:00.000-04:00

SPPM Potters Support the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Many potters will have designated pieces in their spaces at the Market the proceeds of which will be donated to the North Carolina Pottery Center.
Thanks to Cynthia Bringle's and Gloria Schulman for working on this idea and bringing it forth.

Here are the names of generous, donating potters:
Norm Schulman, Cynthia Bringle, Jane Pieser, Stanley Mace Andersen, Pam Brewer, Claudia Dunaway, Jon Ellenbogen & Becky Plummer, Becky Gray, Michael Kline, Linda McFarling,
Jim & Shirl Parmentier, Ken Sedberry, Jenny Lou Sherburne, Gay Smith, Joy Tanner,
Mark Tomzcak.

Look for these special pieces when you're browsing and collecting from these generous folks in October at the Market.

Mountain Potters Raffle

2008-10-07T21:13:00.000-04:00

North Carolina Pottery Center: Scalloped Platter

2008-10-04T13:07:00.000-04:00

Another wonderful piece from the NCPC's pottery collection is this large scalloped platter, by Thurston Cole.
This large "pie" plate shape sets off the imagination of what the giant's, in "Jack and the Bean Stock", favorite pie might have been.
This platter is lovely. If you look at the underside you will find the entire bottom is glazed. It most likely was fired on stilts, a real feat considering its size.

Thurston Cole (1920 - 1966) turned this piece at Royal Crown Pottery in Moore County, NC.

Thurston Cole was Dorothy Auman's brother. Dorothy is quoted as saying "He (Thurston) would go to work at four or five A.M. and stop at ten P.M.. and turn at least 650 pieces a day even 900, if he was pushed. He did it from the drive that was in him. We had orders and we hadn't been having orders. He wanted to fill them to get the business going, but he ran himself down."

This quote is extracted from Raised in Clay; by Nancy Sweezy (page 249).

c. 1940, the diameter is close to 27"

NC Pottery Center Fundraising- Almost There

2008-10-03T17:11:00.000-04:00

From Carolina Unleashed
Tom Starland

October 3rd, 2008

It is sometimes hard to imagine the level of generosity that has been going on in the effort to keep the doors open to the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC. It moves so fast at times that it is hard to keep up with the figures, which is now over $80,000 - according to my last report $80,549. But, I’m sure that figure has been surpassed by now.
The latest infusion of funds arrived after last Sunday (Sept. 28, 2008) at Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales, Ltd. in Hillsborough, NC. The auction raised over $34,000 for the North Carolina Pottery Center. The auction featured 191 fine examples of NC pottery donated by several prominent collectors throughout the state. The sale centered on a substantial collection of Art Ware pottery generously given by Dr. Everette James. Leland Little also donated their services to the Pottery Center.
The fundraising campaign is now in the homestretch, raising the final $10,000 to reach the $90,000 mark where another generous donor will chip in $10,000 to cap off the campaign effort.
Many other fundraising efforts are still scheduled, check in with the blog, Potters For The North Carolina Pottery Center (http://pottersforncpc.blogspot.com/) for full details.
One such fundraiser will take place at the upcoming Spruce Pine Potters Market taking place on Oct. 11-12, 2008, from 10am to 5pm, at the historic Cross Street Building, 31 Cross Street, Spruce Pine, NC. For further info on this event visit (http://www.sprucepinepottersmarket.com/).
Potters participating in this event include: Shane Mickey, Will Baker, Lisa Bruns, Stan Andersen, Nick Joerling, Gay Smith, Claudia Dunaway, Jim and Shirl Parmentier, Terry Gess, Becky Gray, Michael Kline, Jon Ellenbogen & Becky Plummer, Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish, Lindsay Rogers, Melisa Cadel, David Ross, Norm Schulman, Linda McFarling, Courtney Martin, Ken Sedberry, Jenny Lou Sherburne, Jane Peiser, Mark Peters, Ron Slagle, Cynthia Bringle, Mark Tomczak, Joy Tanner, Michael Rutkowsky, Tzadi Turrou, Liz Zlot Summerfield, Pam Brewer, and Peter Rose.
Many of these potters will have designated pieces in their spaces at the Market where the proceeds will be donated to the North Carolina Pottery Center. This is just another example of one of the many opportunities where you can buy a beautiful piece of pottery - for yourself - and at the same time help keep the doors of the NC Pottery Center open and help continue the story that the Center tells of the history of pottery and history of North Carolina and regional pottery and potters.
Linda and I just added a piece made by Courtney Martin to our pottery collection when we were at last year’s fall crafts fair of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild in Asheville, NC. It’s nice to know she is one of the potters who will offer work to benefit the Pottery Center. I guess what goes around does come back around.
How many opportunities will you have in your lifetime where a $25 electronic donation made on the Pottery Center’s website (http://ncpotterycenter.com/) can make a difference? Where buying pottery you wanted can help keep a great facility open and continue to be a great asset in the greater Carolina art community. If everyone reading this does just a little on their part, the Center will be saved. There are many ways to participate, just make sure you do. And, I’ll thank you in advance.

Press Release

2008-09-30T20:36:00.000-04:00

Spectacular results of an auction to benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center

A standing-room only crowd of lively bidders on Sunday at Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales, Ltd. in Hillsborough, raised $34,000 for the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove. Organized by several dedicated supporters of NCPC, the auction featured 191 fine examples of NC pottery donated by several prominent collectors throughout the state, and fetched almost twice as much as the $20,000 that had been anticipated. The sale centered on a substantial collection of Art Ware pottery generously given by Dr. Everette James.

Leland Little very kindly waived all the costs associated with the auction, and in two hours, all the 191 pots had been snapped up by eager pottery lovers. Prices ranged from $10 bargains for a few smaller pieces, to several hundred dollars for many of the most collectible pots. Notable among theses items were a classic late nineteenth century Timothy Boggs canning jar from Alamance County that sold for $650, a handsome J.A. Craven Randolph County crock that sold for $800, and a delightful small green Carolina Pottery frog that sold for $450. Bidding was fierce between members of the knowledgeable collecting community.

NCPC is dedicated to promoting public awareness of North Carolina’s pottery heritage, through educational programs, an extensive permanent collection which is on view at it’s location in Seagrove, and changing pottery exhibitions of old and new NC pots. Like the nearby NC Zoo, this jewel in the state’s cultural heritage draws visitors from around the state and beyond. North Carolina is known as “The Pottery State,” and the response to Sunday’s auction demonstrated a tremendous level of support for NCPC among North Carolina pottery lovers. The extra money puts NCPC on the road to a secure financial footing for the next fiscal year.

The Auction Results

2008-09-28T21:18:00.000-04:00

Today was the auction for the NCPC

at Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd. Hillsborough, NC

The crowd was large with- standing room only.

I am happy to report the auction raised 35,050.00

Bringing our figure up to 80,549.00.

Pictured at right are Dr. Everette James and his wife Nancy sharing the good news.

The NCPC

2008-09-26T22:54:00.000-04:00

Just a note to talk about fundraising.

We are over what I consider our 1/2 way point.
$45,499.00- I am elated and hope to report to you next week how well the auction went.
There are some wonderful works which have been donated.
Lets go buy some!

Auction this Sunday

2008-09-26T07:20:00.000-04:00

Fundraising Auction for NC Pottery Center

Date: 28-Sep-2008--Location: Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd. Hillsborough, NC
A Fundraising Auction of North Carolina pottery to benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center, hosted by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd.
Featuring the legendary collection of Art Pottery of Dr. Everette James.

Including Catawba Valley pottery, Eastern Piedmont salt-glaze, and other Art Ware pots
donated by many well-known collectors and potters from across the state.

Sale: Sunday, September 28, 2008,
2:00 P.M.
Location: Auction Gallery, 246 S. Nash St.,
Hillsborough
Directions: I-85 exit 164, I-40 exit 261, to downtown Hillsborough, left on W. King St., left on S. Nash St

An illustrated catalogue is posted online
http://www.auctionflex.com/searchauctions.ap?co=23728&lang=en

The Mystique of North Carolina

2008-09-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

Part 2
by A. Everette James Jr.

Author: North Carolina Art Pottery

Arthur Ray (A. R.) Cole was both an accomplished turner and glazer. The unused hues of his 1930s glazes made Rainbow Pottery famous. The glazes developed by Henry Cooper, owner of North State Pottery, have created a following of collectors that seek only these examples of North Carolina art pottery. Certain of the glazes are rare and a number of the glaze combinations unique. The variety is so great that irrespective of the size of a collection it would not encompass all Henry Cooper’s oeuvre.

Vase with unusual glaze by Jonah Owen

The glaze work of C. B. Masten, a potter from Indiana employed by C. R. Auman in the 1930s, produced some of the best decorative salt glazing seen in America. Master pieces often have an abstract distribution of the secondary, contrasting glaze. Examples of his artistry have become expensive. The very well illustrated exhibit of his work by the North Carolina State University Gallery of Art and Design demonstrated the originality and artistic breadth of his glazes.

Several accomplished Journey-men potters are only recently garnering the acclaim their abilities deserve. Often they moved from one pottery to another never to accumulate the identifiable body of examples necessary to develop a particular signature. Collectors sometimes acquire forms or glazes with a distinct similarity and by subsequent investigation, identify the potter.

Jonah ("Jonie") Owen began turning for his father at J. H. Owen Pottery before the 1920s. He was an early potter at the shop that would become North State under Henry Cooper.
Jonah Owen produced wares with his brother Walter before North State identified their products with a stamp (1924-1925). Many of the examples by Jonah demonstrated similar forms irrespective of where they were turned. Jonah’s glaze application sometimes had the exotic, somewhat abstract appearance not unlike C. B. Masten examples that would have come a decade later.

Vase 11" cobalt decoration over clear glaze.
Attributed to J. H. Owen.
Very rare. Edward collection.

Rebecca Palmer hired Jonah Owen in 1924 and he brought with him some of the shapes fashioned at J. H. Owen, his father’s pottery. The vase with trophy-like handles is a notable example. Earlier in 1923, Bessie and Tweet Hunter had hired Jonah Owen, Clarence Cole, and Cecil Auman to turn for them at Log Cabin Pottery located in the Guilford College area. Jonah’s examples were turned and often glazed at the Hunter site but fired elsewhere in Seagrove making quality control difficult. The identifying stamp or logo was a log cabin drawn on the bottom of the greenware, often by Myrtice Owen the designer. This was later covered with glaze. Jonah Owen’s examples can only be designated by their turning characteristics. Log Cabin Pottery was a short-lived operation (1923-1927) and after it closed Jonah Owen set up his own operation at Sodom.

James G. Teague (1906-1988) is another of the journeyman Seagrove potters that we are now coming to appreciate the beauty and sophistication of his examples. Jim Teague was from a distinguished family of potters. His brother Charlie was the first potter at Jugtown, before Ben Owen, and "Duck" operated Teague Pottery on Highway 27 south of Hemp which is now Robbins.

James Teague operated his own pottery shop in the 1930s which he sold to C. C. Cole when Teague went to work for Fulper Pottery Company in New Jersey as a demonstration potter. In 1941 Teague returned to North Carolina and opened a shop making large pieces mainly for other potteries such as Joe Owen at Glen Art, M. L. Owens Pottery, and for his brother Duck at Teague Pottery. His son Archie (1935-1998) opened Hand T. Pottery with Archie’s father-in- law Homer Hancock in the 1960s.

Jim Teague’s skill as a turner is outstanding and any examples by him, if identified, are collectible. Often he used incised rings at the juncture between the body and neck of his vessels. He often made wares in which the height seems to be the achievement of the graceful form.
North Carolina art pottery has much to recommend it purely upon an aesthetic basis. However, part of the appeal not always present for other genre is the mystique, the unknown, and yet to be discovered associated with North Carolina art pottery. The collector and scholar are attracted to this intellectual aspect of this particular genre.

Seagrove Pottery, Dorothy Cole Auman & Walter Auman

About the author:
Everette James, a native of rural Martin County, NC., was educated at the University of NC in Chapel Hill, Duke Medical School, Harvard, and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. James taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and Vanderbilt. He has published more than 20 books and 500 articles and established St. James Place, a restored historic Primitive Baptist church exhibiting over 400 examples of North Carolina pottery. He and his wife, Dr. Nancy Farmer, have donated their collection of Nell Cole Graves pottery to the North Carolina Pottery Museum at Seagrove and a survey collection of 250 examples to the Chapel Hill Museum. They live in Chapel Hill and are active in community affairs.
All illustrations taken from North Carolina Art Pottery by permission.

Reminder for the coming week

2008-09-21T08:58:00.000-04:00

Sept. 28, 2008 - Fundraising Auction for NC Pottery Center

Date: 28-Sep-2008
Time: 2 PM
Location: Hillsborough, NC

Description: Fundraising Auction of NC Pottery to Benefit the NC Pottery Center
A Fundraising Auction of North Carolina pottery to benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center, hosted by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd., featuring the legendary collection of Art Ware pottery of Dr. Everette James, as well as Catawba Valley pottery, Eastern Piedmont salt-glaze, and other Art Ware pots donated by many well-known collectors and potters from across the state.
Sale: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 2:00 P.M.
Location: Auction Gallery, 246 S. Nash St., Hillsborough
Directions: I-85 exit 164, I-40 exit 261, to downtown Hillsborough, left on W. King St., left on S. Nash St.
Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd.
246 S. Nash St.,
Hillsborough
919-644-1243
http://www.llauctions.com/

The Mystique of North Carolina Art Pottery

2008-09-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

Part 1-

"The Mystique of North Carolina Art Pottery"

by A. Everette James Jr.

Author: North Carolina Art Pottery

Two-handled vase, unsigned. 16 1/2" chrome red. Handle and lip probably 1920s. Attributed to Jacob B. Cole.

North Carolina art pottery had its inspiration in the utilitarian tradition dating as far back for some of the "turners and burners" eight or nine generations ago. This evolution from the historical glazes and forms employed to achieve function to a primary aesthetic basis was a particularly arduous one. Today North Carolina art pottery is being recognized for the artistic achievement it represents.

The large body of rather pedestrian fare has created the idea that all North Carolina pottery is commonplace, inexpensive, and with little artistic merit. It may also be difficult to identify unless it is Jugtown or Pisgah Forest. In fact, some collectors refer to North Carolina art pottery as "Jugtown" equating in their minds the separate entities. However, the outstanding examples of North Carolina pottery are rare and Jugtown (one of the truly important potteries) is located in the Seagrove area along with another hundred shops.

In North Carolina, the fashioning of clay pots occurs in several distinct locales and has its origin from different nationalities and cultures. The Seagrove potters’ forebearers were English, mainly from Staffordshire, and in the central Piedmont the ancestry was German. In the far west, Native American traditions formed the historical basis for the creations we collect.

One of the more intriguing aspects of North Carolina art pottery is that a substantial number of examples are unmarked. The proper identification of pieces represents a challenge and adds to the pleasure of acquisition.

J. B. Cole pottery, one of the largest of North Carolina, employed a number of potters and marked less than 1% of the thousands of wares they made before closing the shop in the 1980s. In the 1930s they published a catalogue of their wares turned by the four potters of Waymon Cole, Philmore Graves, Nell Cole Graves, and Bascomb King.

Pot on left :Unusual A. R. Cole 13 1/2" vase. Mason Stains applied over white base. $350-$425. Note shape of lug handles as an adaptation of historical shapes in North Carolina employed by the Moravian potters.

J. B. Cole pottery had many contractual relations with other businesses to make pottery for them. They would identify the contracting institution by a stamp designed for that specific purpose. Thus, "Sunset Mountain" and "Goose Creek" are not potteries but wares made in the J. B. Cole shop for these businesses. Some collectors like to acquire examples with unusual locations designated by the stamp or label. The Hiltons in the Catawba Valley also produced wares for tourists in resorts such as Tryon where an art colony also flourished in the early to middle decades of the 20th century.

Since there was little aesthetically to borrow upon from the utilitarian tradition, many North Carolina art pottery forms were adapted from Oriental and European shapes and designs. This transition was not seamless and the progression often manifest itself in unique pieces. In fact, one of the most interesting subsets of the North Carolina art pottery spectrum are the transitional wares produced between 1915-1930. One can visually trace the struggle that these families of potters were enduring to continue a tradition practiced for centuries by their forebears. They were, for them, exploring uncharted waters.

Pot Below: Two-handled vase, 13 1/4", double glaze, incised line decoration. Attributed to Charles Teague at Jugtown. Very rare. Edwards collection.

In a labor intensive, multi-tasked endeavor such as the production of handmade North Carolina art pottery, the lack of uniformity can be a problem or a virtue. Some of the pieces may not be desirable due to color and form. Conversely, certain examples will be visually attractive and unique. The variation of Rebecca pitcher or basket forms are almost infinite. The variety of patterns of chrome red or Chinese blue is limitless. Only a few of the potters are known outside the area and then only to avid collectors. Ben Owen, Sr. was the potter at Jugtown for almost four decades. His translation of oriental forms to the shapes featured in Jugtown ware earned him the title "master potter." Jack (or Jacques) Busbee, owner of Jugtown, was trained as a painter at the Art Students’ League in New York. He had seen a great deal of pottery from other cultures in museums and shared this knowledge with young Ben Owen. This long-standing partnership resulted in graceful adaptation of oriental and European forms with their glazes by names such as tobacco spit, Chinese blue, and frogskin. Jugtown has a national following of collectors.

Part 2 to be posted later this week--------------------------------

About the author:Everette James, a native of rural Martin County, NC., was educated at the University of NC in Chapel Hill, Duke Medical School, Harvard, and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. James taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and Vanderbilt. He has published more than 20 books and 500 articles and established St. James Place, a restored historic Primitive Baptist church exhibiting over 400 examples of North Carolina pottery. He and his wife, Dr. Nancy Farmer, have donated their collection of Nell Cole Graves pottery to the North Carolina Pottery Museum at Seagrove and a survey collection of 250 examples to the Chapel Hill Museum. They live in Chapel Hill and are active in community affairs. All illustrations taken from North Carolina Art Pottery by permission.

North Carolina Pottery Center: Squirrel Bottle

2008-09-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

We will be featuring some of the pieces that are part of the collection in the North Carolina Pottery Center. Nothing compares to seeing pottery in person so if you get the chance to come to Seagrove check out the Center's collection.

The first piece is a Moravian squirrel bottle.

This is a quote from the North Carolina Pottery Center booklet that can be purchased in the gift shop, "The Moravians are a Protestant sect founded in the German regions of central Europe. During the 1730's they began emigrating to America, first to Georgia and Pennsylvania, and then to North Carolina."

Michael Kline, a potter from the mountains, asked how would this bottle functioned?
I asked Mary Farrell owner of Westmoore Pottery if she has come across an answer to this. She replied, "I don't think anyone really knows the answer to this question. Being a bottle, they could have been used as such. However, I know of no antique ones which have been recovered with any contents inside them. My guess is that they were made and sold mainly as decorative items (The wear patterns - no overabundance of chipping at the bottle openings -- would tend to support this.)"

The Squirrel Bottle is attributed to Rudolph Christ from Forsyth County. The dates are c 1800-1825. This is lead glazed earthenware and is on loan from Old Salem, Inc.

Inside the North Carolina Pottery Center

2008-09-12T07:19:00.000-04:00

The above image has two women pictured. The woman on the left is Nell Cole Graves and on the right is Dorothy Auman.

We are planning on doing a series of what one may find inside the North Carolina Pottery Center when they visit. There are many people that may have heard of the Center but have not had the pleasure to see it in person yet. We wanted to show everyone what a fine place this is and how important it is to keep the doors open. Please take the time to visit the Pottery Center and discover for yourself what a wonderful facility this is for learning about North Carolina pottery, and the rich history of working with clay.

The Pictures below are an overview of of the permanent display.

The Skinny on Saving the NC Pottery Center

2008-09-10T18:04:00.000-04:00

The Skinny on Saving the NC Pottery Center, By Tom Starland
I last posted info about the effort to save the NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, on Aug. 18, 2008. So it’s time to update you readers on what has happened since then.
The last time I gave an update on money raised it was on Aug. 11, 2008, and at that time $30,000 had been raised. As I post this the current amount raised is $41,983.89. That’s almost half way to their goal of raising $90,000. The remaining $10,000 will be donated by a NC couple to cap off the goal of raising $100,000. That’s a glass half-full view. See, I can be positive at times.
A whopping $2,325 of that money was raised by Mark Hewitt’s raffle for a 2-gallon jar, of his creation. 116 tickets were purchased for the raffle, (if you’re doing the math - one person paid $25 instead of $20 for their ticket) with all the proceeds to benefit the NC Pottery Center. The lucky winner was Greg Sims of Durham, NC. Sims now has helped save the Pottery Center and won a jar worth $350. If he only purchased one ticket for $20 - that’s a very nice investment - on both levels.
Another development is that Meredith Heywood of Whynot Pottery has started a new blog for information about the effort to save the NC Pottery Center - it can be found at (http://pottersforncpc.blogspot.com/). You’ll get the very latest info on this blog. You can learn about other raffles and opportunities to purchase pottery and help the NC Pottery Center keep it’s door open.
The BIG event taking place this month will be a benefit auction hosted by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales (http://www.llauctions.com/), on Sept. 28, 2008, in Hillsborough, NC. Dr. Everette James, an eminent NC pottery collector and Board member of the NC Pottery Center, has generously donated a substantial collection of NC pottery to be put up for bid. Other noted collectors from around the state have joined the effort, donating treasured antique NC pots for this auction. A second auction, held at the NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, will be held in the spring of 2009. It will feature contemporary North Carolina pottery.
On a good news/bad news event, Denny Mecham, who was the executive director of the NC Pottery Center has been hired as the new executive director of the future Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS. “This is a new Frank Gehry-designed museum”.
It didn’t take long for the search committee in Biloxi to select Mecham out of 40 applicants. Seagrove’s loss is Biloxi’s gain, but I’m sure the folks in Seagrove are happy Mecham was discovered to be the talented and experienced asset - they knew.
Let’s just hope that the powers that be in NC realize, before it’s too late, what could be lost if the NC Pottery Center is also allowed to slip away. Of course you people out there can have a lot to say about that possibility too. You can make a donation toward the $90,000 goal, you can become a member of the NC Pottery Center, you can participate in one of the benefit auctions, raffles, or by purchasing a piece of pottery where the proceeds will be donated. You can also help by spreading the word about the effort to save the NC Pottery Center - knowledge is power.

I am adding a note on this -Thanks Samantha Henneke from Bulldog Pottery for your help putting up the photos inside the center.
Beautiful job. Meredith

Dan Finch Raffle for the NCPC

2008-09-09T19:04:00.000-04:00

North Carolinian selected as head of Ohr-O'Keefe

2008-09-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

North Carolinian selected as head of Ohr-O'Keefe
By PAM FIRMIN

North Carolina potter, educator, museum director and arts leader Denny Mecham starts work Oct. 15 as the new executive director of Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi.
She follows Marjorie Gowdy, who retired at the end of August.
Mecham was chosen from a field of about 40 applicants, of which Ohr board members interviewed 21 by phone and the final five in person.
"We're pretty pleased with our find, I've got to tell you," Ohr board President Larry Clark said Monday about Mecham's selection.
"With her background and experience with fundraising and building projects, she's the whole package. People are thrilled with her abilities, but her personality and temperament make her the type person who is going to fit into our community."
That was a key factor. The board wanted someone willing to move to the Coast and make it their home, Clark said, who would become involved in the community and would make a 10-year commitment to the museum.
'I think God must have sent her to us,'
" Clark quoted someone saying of Mecham.
On Monday, the first time Mecham saw the beachfront construction site for the new Frank Gehry-designed museum, she told the Sun Herald, "It took my breath away. All I can see is the potential. What a vision."
She said a museum "really represents that true independent and creative spirit that is the people of that area.
"By working with tourism, by providing a network for community activities... a museum does not stand alone," Mecham said. "Part of its job is to engage the community, both local and national.
"My job is to fundraise, get grants, be proactive. The board is very clear that given the economic needs of the area that our fundraising needs to happen elsewhere. We have a real challenge there."
First on her agenda is... " to jump right in and immediately prioritize," she said. "I'll be listening more than anything."
She will be here next week to find a place to live, then will be publicly introduced at the annual Beau Rivage gala Oct. 15.
The Mecham file
Who: Denny Mecham, the newly named executive director of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, who begins duties here Oct. 15.
Education: She holds two master's degrees, one in science in studio art and the other in art; worked as a college instructor for 22 years, most recently as assistant professor of art at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.;
Artist: Was a potter for many years, also a weaver and painter; continued as a studio artist while teaching.
Museums: In 1994 became museum curator, then director, at the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, N.C., and directed the capital campaign to build a new art center. Currently she is executive director at the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, N.C., a museum dedicated to showcasing North Carolina pottery.

And the Winner is.............

2008-09-08T19:40:00.000-04:00

At 5 pm on Sunday, August 31, the last customer at the Hewitt's Summer Kiln Opening drew the winning raffle ticket for the two gallon jar. Visiting the pottery for the first time, Emily Wilkins, from Rutherfordton, NC, who was staying with her aunt and uncle, Terry and Carole Herndon in Pittsboro, pulled out the winning ticket. The lucky winner is Greg Sims of Durham, NC. Congratulations Greg!

116 tickets were purchased for the Raffle, raising a grand total of $2325 (one person paid $25 instead of $20 for their ticket), with all the proceeds to benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center.

NCPC Article

2008-09-08T07:41:00.000-04:00

The North Carolina Pottery Center is the physical manifestation of years of advocacy on behalf of North Carolina’s ceramic tradition by a host of dedicated collectors, historians, potters, and enthusiasts. Opened in 1998 to promote awareness of North Carolina’s outstanding emblematic craft, NCPC has become a much-loved, state-wide institution, exhibiting the best pots from around the state, both historic and contemporary, and educating schoolchildren, scout groups, tourists, even potters, about North Carolina’s ceramic heritage. Located at the center of the vibrant pottery community of Seagrove, south of Asheboro, NCPC is also a welcome center for visitors to Seagrove potteries.

In July of 2008, the Board of Directors, along with past Board members and friends of the NCPC, launched a multi-faceted, fundraising campaign for the Center. Our goal is to raise $100,000 and the campaign is well underway, with $40,000 raised so far.

Dr. Everette James, an eminent NC pottery collector and Board member, donated a substantial collection of NC pottery to be put up for bid at a Benefit Auction for NCPC. Many other noted collectors and potters from around the state have spontaneously joined the effort, donating treasured antique North Carolina pots for this auction.

The quality of the donated pots is truly spectacular, indicating the breadth of support for NCPC, an institution many feel is a priceless cultural treasure. Over 190 pots and “box lots” (groups of smaller pots), have been assembled, and among these are superb examples from all the different regions, makers, and time periods of North Carolina’s ceramic history. There are wonderful utilitarian wares from both the Randolph County area and the Catawba Valley, some of them with rare maker’s marks, as well as enticing transitional pots from the early twentieth century, and then an outstanding variety of “Art Ware” pots from the 1930’s -!960’s. All the great names and styles of North Carolina pottery are represented.

What is exciting about this collection, apart from the fundraising effort on behalf of NCPC, is that it offers the public a chance to see, bid, and perhaps own, part of North Carolina’s distinctive ceramic history. Nowadays you can buy objects to ornament your home that have been made all over the world, but this auction allows people an opportunity to give their living spaces a truly North Carolinian flavor. These distinctive, high-quality pots are homegrown, and will appreciate in value as they warm a domestic interior with their unique friendliness. We look forward to sharing them with the pottery lovers of North Carolina.

For more information, please visit http://www.ncpotterycenter.com/ and http://www.llauctions.com/

North Carolina Pottery Center Auction

2008-09-07T19:57:00.000-04:00

Fundraising Auction of NC Pottery
to Benefit The North Carolina Pottery Center

Names of potters included in the Auction are:
James Franklin Seagle, SL Hartsoe, early unsigned Catawba Valley (possibly Lefevers),
Propst, JW Hilton, Blackburn, Harvey Reinhardt, Thomas Ritchie, John Goodman,
B.B.Craig, Albert Hodge,unsigned Edgefield SC, unsigned Webster School, EA Poe, H Fox,
Tim Boggs, JF Brower, JAMacon, WH Hancock, JA Craven, JD Craven, JM Hayes,
several excellent earthenware dirtdishes,
Pisgah Forest, George Donkel, WM Penland, Log Cabin, Carolina Pottery, Rainbow,
Sunset Mtn, Smithfield, Auman, Seagrove Pottery, Dorothy Auman signed Seagrove Pottery,
CBMaston, CC Cole, Rainbow, AR Cole, JB Cole, Neolia and Celia Cole, David Garner,
Billy Ray Hussey, Mark Hewitt, Charlie Craven, Joe Owen, ML Owens,
Jugtown, Charlie Moore, Ben Owen Master Potter,
Nancy Sweezy signed Jugtown, and many more.

Names of donors:
Dr. Everette James, John and Jerry Gimesh, Bragg Cox, Tim Blackburn, Scott Smith,
Bill Ivey,David Blackburn, Tommy Cranford, Jugtown Pottery, Nancy Blount,
Neil Lapp, Charlotte Brown,Sandra Frohner, Bruce Gholson, Ray Smith,
Fran Irvin, Tom Turner, Cathy Blackwelder, Beth Ann and Tommy McPherson,
Caroleen Sanders, Gene Brown, Cindy and Tommy Edwards,
Steve Compton, Ray Owen, Alan and Barry Huffman, Monty Busick,
Terry Zug, WD Morton.

A Fundraising Auction of North Carolina pottery to benefit the North
Carolina Pottery Center,
hosted by Leland Little Auction & EstateSales, Ltd.,
featuring the legendary collection of Art Ware pottery of
Dr. Everette James, as well as Catawba Valley pottery, Eastern Piedmont
salt-glaze, and other Art Ware pots donated by many well-known
collectors and potters from across the state.

SALE: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 2:00 P.M.
LOCATION: LLAES, Ltd. Auction Gallery, 246 S. Nash St., Hillsborough, NC
DIRECTIONS: I-85 exit 164, I-40 exit 261, to downtown Hillsborough,
left on W. King St., left on S. Nash St.
An illustrated catalogue will be posted online prior to the auction.

information:

http://ncpotterycenter.com/index.htm
or http://www.llauctions.com/