Sunday, January 31, 2010

Pottery by Phil Graves

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.
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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.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Treasures of the Earth Pottery Show & Sale


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


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

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Daison Ware

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.

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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.