Catawba Valley Pottery

Catawba Valley Pottery describes alkaline glazed stoneware made in the Catawba River Valley of Western North Carolina from the early 19th century , as well as certain contemporary pottery made in the region utilizing traditional methods and forms.

The earliest Catawba Valley pottery was earthenware made by the settlers of German descent who established farming communities in the region. By the early 1820s however Catawba Valley potters had adopted stoneware technology that allowed for the manufacture of stronger, larger and more varied wares. From the earliest manufacture the stoneware made in the Catawba Valley was alkaline glazed and fired in what is known as ”groundhog kilns“ .

Alkaline glazes are made by combining hardwood ash or crushed glass with clay and water. Stoneware glazed in this way will take on a brown or green color once fired in the kiln. It is not known why Catawba Valley potters choose alkaline over salt glaze which was the predominant glaze for stoneware in America at the time. The groundhog kiln was built partially underground. A doorway led into a long, low passage of brick or rock construction. Inside the door was a sunken firebox with a chimney built at the kilns far end. This design created the draft needed to generate the intense heat required to create stoneware.

The first recorded pottery in the Catawba Valley was operated by Daniel Seagle (ca.1805-1867) of Lincoln County. As with all the early potters Seagle made the utilitarian wares needed by the local farming community. These included churns, molasses and whisky jugs and food storage vessels of various sizes. Decoration, when used at all, was simple, usually limited to one or more incised lines. Seagle did at times decorate with “glass runs”. This technique involved embedding glass shards along the rim or handles. When fired in the kiln the shards melted resulting in a decorative highlight. After Daniel Seagles death the pottery was operated by his son and various apprentices into the 1890’s. Other notable early potteries included those operated by the Hartzogs, the Hilton family and the brothers Enoch and Harvey Reinhardt. At the turn of the 20th century the food industry began to rely increasingly on glass and canned food storage along with refrigeration. These innovations brought about the demise of the utilitarian pottery industry nationwide. In the Catawba Valley those potters who chose to continue the craft had to rely on tourism and an interest in handmade crafts fostered by the Arts and Crafts movement. They began using more decorative techniques such as “swirl ware” ; pottery made by combining two or more different colors of clay. They also introduced forms such as “face jugs” . The origin of this form is obscure, but face jugs became, and continue to be, popular with collectors of folk art pottery. These efforts notwithstanding, by 1960 only one man, Burlon Craig, was still producing pottery in the Catawba Valley.

Burlon B. Craig (ca. 1914-2002) was born in Lincoln County, NC and learned to make pottery as a teenager. When Craig returned from service in the Navy following WWII he purchased a farm and pottery complex in Vale, NC. The pottery operation included a groundhog kiln and fully equipped shop. While Craig worked full time at a local furniture factory, he continued to make pottery and for the next 25 years single handedly kept the pottery making traditions of the Catawba Valley alive. Americas’ Bicentennial celebration increased interest in traditional crafts and Craig’s work began to be discovered by academics and folk art collectors. His pottery was featured in several publications and in 1981 examples of his work were added to the Smithsonian Institution collection. In 1984 he received the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship. Craig continued to live and work in Vale until his death in 2002. His annual pottery sales, known as “kiln openings” were attended by hundreds of collectors.

In 1981 Charles Lisk and his family moved to Vale, NC. Lisk had been making pottery in the Seagrove area of the state. Lisk developed a friendship with his neighbor Burlon Craig who shared with him the techniques of the Catawba Valley pottery tradition. Lisk built his own groundhog kiln and began making alkaline glazed stoneware. He makes a variety of wares including the traditional swirl pottery and face jugs. Other artisans have begun making traditional, alkaline glazed pottery , with more than a dozen now living and working in the Catawba Valley.

References

Zug, Charles G. III. "Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina". Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986

Huffman, Barry G. "Catawba Clay: Contemporary Southern Face Jug Makers". Biltmore Press, 1997

Beam, Harpe, Smith, & Springs (editors). "Two Centuries of Potters; A Catawba Valley Tradition". Lincoln County Historical Association, Exhibition Catalog, 1999

External links

* [http://www.cvpottery.com Contemporary Catawba Valley Pottery]
* [http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=1984_05 NEA Profile of Burlon Craig]