North Carolina's eighteenth and nineteenth-century Moravian potters were remarkable artisans whose products included coarse earthenware, slip-trailed decorated ware, Leeds-type fine pottery, press-molded stove tiles, figural bottles, toys, and salt-glazed stoneware. Silesian-born and German-trained potter Gottfried Aust was the first to arrive in Bethabara in 1755. After that, numerous apprentices of his carried on the trade in the state and beyond. Some apprentices rose to the rank of master potter. Aust's most successful protégé, Rudolph Christ, excelled in the creation of Queensware, faience, and tortoiseshell-glazed pottery. Swiss-born Heinrich Schaffner, one of several more Moravian master potters, is famously known for his "Salem smoking pipes." Today, museums and private collectors vigorously compete for scarce examples of North Carolina-made Moravian pottery. Every piece found and preserved is like a new paragraph added to the story of the art and mystery of pottery-making in one of the South's earliest settlements.

In Wachovia, the various trash pits or middens associated with early Moravian inhabitants, as well as the potters' waster dumps, both in Bethabara and Salem, have provided us with significant insights into an incredibly complex eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century earthenware production. Although local antiquarians and collectors have been aware for many years that pottery constituted one of the largest early industries carried on by the Moravians in North Carolina, it was for the most part only the well-kept archival records that testified to this fact. Fine examples of slip-decorated pottery, as wekk as some utilitarian forms, existed in local collections and in the Wachovia Museum in Old Salem, but it was not until the excavations at Bethabara were begun that anyone became aware of the real significance of the tradition in which local potters were working. -- pg. 4.

In Wachovia, the various trash pits or middens associated with early Moravian inhabitants, as well as the potters' waster dumps, both in Bethabara and Salem, have provided us with significant insights into an incredibly complex eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century earthenware production. Although local antiquarians and collectors have been aware for many years that pottery constituted one of the largest early industries carried on by the Moravians in North Carolina, it was for the most part only the well-kept archival records that testified to this fact. Fine examples of slip-decorated pottery, as wekk as some utilitarian forms, existed in local collections and in the Wachovia Museum in Old Salem, but it was not until the excavations at Bethabara were begun that anyone became aware of the real significance of the tradition in which local potters were working. -- pg. 4.

North Carolina Pottery: The Collection of The Mint Museums

Originally distributed with a different title as a very limited edition of twelve in 1975, Historical Archaeology in Wachovia presents a unique record of the 1753 Moravian town of Bethabara, near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Stanley South, who led the site's excavation in 1966, fully describes such discoveries as fortifications from the French and Indian War and twenty ruins of various shops and dwellings in the town. He also illustrates methods of ruin excavation and stabilization, including the replacement of palisade posts in the original fort ditch as part of the site's development as Historic Bethabara Park. Some of the most interesting of South's finds concern the confluence of two traditions of pottery and stoneware production. One of these is represented by forty pottery wheel-thrown types and forms made by the master German potter Gottfried Aust between 1755 and 1771, excavated from the ruin of his shop and kiln waster dump. Additional work at both Bethabara and Salem recovered the waster dumps of Aust's journeyman potter Rudolph Christ, who had also studied with the Staffordshire potter William Ellis. Christ's wares, which demonstrate both German and English influences, are discussed in detail. Extensively documented and heavily illustrated with over 320 photographs, drawings, and maps, this volume - a classic example of the process of historical archaeology as demonstrated by one of its foremost practitioners in America - is a valuable resource for avocational archaeologists, particularly those living in the Southeast, as well as historical archaeologists, historians, ceramicists, ceramics collectors, students of colonial culture, and museologists.

During the quarter of a century before the thirteen colonies became a nation, the northwest quadrant of North Carolina had just begun to attract permanent settlers. This seemingly primitive area may not appear to be a likely source for attractive pottery and ornate silverware and furniture, much less for an audience to appreciate these refinements. Yet such crafts were not confined to urban centers, and artisans, like other colonists, were striving to create better lives for themselves as well as to practice their trades. As Johanna Miller Lewis shows in this pivotal study of colonial history and material culture, the growing population of Rowan County required not only blacksmiths, saddlers, and tanners but also a great variety of skilled craftsmen to help raise the standard of living. Rowan County's rapid expansion was in part the result of the planned settlements of the Moravian Church. Because the Moravians maintained careful records, historians have previously credited church artisans with greater skill and more economic awareness than non-church craftsmen. Through meticulous attention to court and private records, deeds, wills, and other sources, Lewis reveals the Moravian failure to keep up with the pace of development occurring elsewhere in the county. Challenging the traditional belief that southern backcountry life was primitive, Lewis shows that many artisans held public office and wielded power in the public sphere. She also examines women weavers and spinsters as an integral part of the population. All artisans—Moravian and non-Moravian, male and female—helped the local market economy expand to include coastal and trans-Atlantic trade. Lewis's book contributes meaningfully to the debate over self-sufficiency and capitalism in rural America.

Collecting North Carolina Pottery: Earthenware, Stoneware, and Fancyware displays and describes hundreds of examples of North Carolina pottery with 450 photographs that include commonplace wares as well as rare and highly collectible one-of-a-kind pieces. Most were made in the years spanning from about 1750 to 1950. Of special significance are examples of Moravian and Quaker-made earthenware created in eighteenth and early nineteenth century settlements. Twentieth century art pottery - so-called Fancyware - in addition to both salt-glazed and alkaline-glazed utilitarian stoneware, rounds out the book's contents. An opening essay, illustrated by some never-before-published historic photographs of the state's potters and potteries, provides an overview of the region's role in ceramics production. Of inestimable value to collectors, historians, archaeologists, antiques dealers, and gallery and museum curators, Collecting North Carolina Pottery: Earthenware, Stoneware, and Fancyware is the most comprehensive catalog of North Carolina pottery, including up-to-date price estimates, available today. 2011 values.

This richly illustrated portrait of North Carolina's pottery traditions tells the story of the generations of 'tuners and burners' whose creation are much admired for their strength and beauty. The first comprehensive ceramic history for the state, this book examines the largely vanished world of folk potters and the continuing achievements of their descendants.

Traces the craft of pottery making among the Catawba Indians of North Carolina from the late 18th century to the present When Europeans encountered them, the Catawba Indians were living along the river and throughout the valley that carries their name near the present North Carolina-South Carolina border. Archaeologists later collected and identified categories of pottery types belonging to the historic Catawba and extrapolated an association with their protohistoric and prehistoric predecessors. In this volume, Thomas Blumer traces the construction techniques of those documented ceramics to the lineage of their probable present-day master potters or, in other words, he traces the Catawba pottery traditions. By mining data from archives and the oral traditions of contemporary potters, Blumer reconstructs sales circuits regularly traveled by Catawba peddlers and thereby illuminates unresolved questions regarding trade routes in the protohistoric period. In addition, the author details particular techniques of the representative potters—factors such as clay selection, tool use, decoration, and firing techniques—which influence their styles.

Folk art is one of the American South's most significant areas of creative achievement, and this comprehensive yet accessible reference details that achievement from the sixteenth century through the present. This volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores the many forms of aesthetic expression that have characterized southern folk art, including the work of self-taught artists, as well as the South's complex relationship to national patterns of folk art collecting. Fifty-two thematic essays examine subjects ranging from colonial portraiture, Moravian material culture, and southern folk pottery to the South's rich quilt-making traditions, memory painting, and African American vernacular art, and 211 topical essays include profiles of major folk and self-taught artists in the region.