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entucky 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 copyright 2010 by j r henderson this article was originally published in backcountry notes which provides references to source articles reprinted by permission 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 posted by about me at 7 17 am 10 comments labels art pottery cole j b cole j b cole pottery jay henderson sunset mountain pottery wednesday march 24 2010 the nasher museum of art at duke university 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 posted by about me at 7 34 am labels mark hewitt monday march 1 2010 in memoriam nancy sweezy 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 posted by about me at 9 46 am 1 comment labels jugtown nancy sweezy north carolina pottery tuesday february 2 2010 museums in a minute ncpc video from the n c arts council a one minute peek at the ncpc posted by about me at 9 56 am no comments labels north carolina north carolina pottery center 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 an...