Customer Reviews

North Carolina Pottery: The Collection of the Mint Museums

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If you have the slightest interest in North Carolina's unique pottery tradition, this book provides a lavishly illustrated catalog of the collection of the Mint Museums of Charlotte, NC. Each potter's biography, genealogy and work history is included with an example of the work of each. There are essays by pottery experts to explain the background on various types of pottery, techniques, locations, etc., as well as the history of pottery making in North Carolina. This would make a wonderful Christmas gift for any North Carolinian.

THIS BOOK IS A "MUST HAVE" FOR COLLECTORS OF NORTH CAROLINA POTTERY. THE TEXT IS FULL OF "MARKS OR SIGNATURES" OF THE POTTERS AND THEIR HISTORY. THE PICTURES SHOW THE GLAZES IN "TRUE COLOR" FOR EASY IDENTIFICATION.

The strength of this book is the photography, which is generally excellent of gives very accurate color renditions. This work demonstrates the extraordinary breadth of the North Carolina pottery tradition. The backbone of the Mint Museums collection is the Dorothy and Walter Auman collection which the Museums acquired in 1983, and these pieces are very well represented in the book. The Auman collection is particularly strong in stoneware; the Mint Museums book includes such examples as the Dan Cagle "Whynot" jug, circa 1900 [46]; the marked W. H. Chisco jug, also circa 1900 [55]; the outstanding J. A. Craven "Masonic Emblem" jar, circa 1855 [142]; the famous Chester Webster four-gallon jug [396] and runlet [397] decorated with incised fish; and a fortuitous side-by-side comparison of a salt-glazed jug by W. H. Hancock [184] and an alkaline-glazed jug by David Hartsoe [186]. The selection of Moravian earthenware includes a superb decorated plate attributed to Gottfried Aust, circa 1780 [255]. Complementing the "catalog" section of the book are excellent histories by Daisy Wade Bridges and Charlie Zug. The potters and pieces are constrained by the limits of the Mint Museum collection, which is less strong in the art pottery era - - the pieces shown for Joe Owen, for example, are not representative of his work, and there is not a single item attributed to either Virginia Mae Shelton or Philmore Graves. In addition, there are some questionable art pottery attributions; for example, two of the pieces attributed to J. B. Cole, [99] and [101], have the characteristic glaze results and edge browning of pottery made at the J. B. Cole shop beginning about 1953, ten years after Jace Cole died. Nonetheless, the illustrations of Auman-collection stoneware are worth the price of the book.