This Day in Pottery History
A series of observations, meditations, vignettes, and editorials about the back roads and byways of pottery history that helped shape the pottery world as we know it here, on this very day in pottery history.
Each episode is only about 5 minutes long.
Episode guide:
Episode 1. One brick at a time.
A party in the dungeon of a Dresden palace.
READING LIST:
The Arcanum. Janet Gleeson. Warner Books/New York. 1998.
Episode 2. Tribute.
The gift that keeps on giving.
READING LIST:
First Art: Historic African Ceramics. Douglas Dawson. C & C Printing/Hong Kong. 2009.
A World at Arms. A Global History of World War II. Gerhard Weinberg. Cambridge University Press/Cambridge, England. 1994.
Episode 3. For Those Who Hated Benjamin Franklin.
All good children go to heaven.
READING LIST:
American Patriotic and Political China. Marian Klamkin. Scribner’s and Sons/New York. 1973.
Episode 4. Rock Will Cover It.
Looks aren’t everything.
READING LIST:
Fancy Rockingham Pottery: The Modeller and Ceramics in Nineteenth Century America. Diana Stradling. University of Richmond Museum/Richmond, VA. 2004.
After The Revolution. Joseph Ellis. W.W. Norton/New York. 1979.
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Episode 5. On the Road Again.
Selling pots here, there, and everywhere.
READING LIST:
The Rise of the Staffordshire Potteries. John Thomas. Augustus Kelly Publishers/New York. 1971.
The English Country Pottery, Its History and Techniques. Peter Brears. Charles Tuttle Co./Rutland, VT. 1971.
Episode 6. Cheesequake.
A clay pit melodrama.
READING LIST:
Ceramics in America. Ian Quimby, Ed. University Press of Virginia/Charlottesville. 1972.
Decorated Stoneware Pottery of North America. Donald Webster. Charles Tuttle Co./Rutland Vt. 1971.
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Early American Pottery and China. John Spargo. The Century Co./NY. 1926.
American Stoneware. William Ketchum. Holt & Co./New York. 1991.
Early Potters and Potteries of New York State. William Ketchum. Funk & Wagnalls/New York. 1970.
Episode 7. A Dozen Dozen Dozen.
Sometimes things just don’t add up.
READING LIST:
Ceramics in America, 2011. Robert Hunter, ed. Chipstone Press/Williamsburg, VA. 2011.
The English Country Pottery, Its History and Techniques. Peter Brears. Charles Tuttle Co./Rutland, VT. 1971.
Episode 8. The Day The World Shrank.
It’s all about priorities. And chocolate.
READING LIST:
Ceramics in America. Ian Quimby, Ed. University Press of Virginia/Charlottesville. 1972.
The Emily Johnston De Forest Collection of Mexican Maiolica. Edwin Atlee Barber. Hispanic Society of America/New York. 1911.
Episode 9. The Story of How One Thing Leads to Another.
Being overlooked can have it’s advantages.
READING LIST:
Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. Regina Krahl, John Guy, J Keith Wilson, and Julian Raby, ed.s Smithsonian Institute/Washington DC. 2010.
Episode 10. 40 Years Later.
Last week, part 2.
The best place to start is at the beginning.
READING LIST:
Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. Regina Krahl, John Guy, J Keith Wilson, and Julian Raby, ed.s Smithsonian Institute/Washington DC. 2010.
Episode 11. Jugtown, USA.
For the foodies amongst us.
READING LIST:
American Stoneware. William Ketchum. Holt & Co./New York. 1991.
American Stonewares. Georgeanna Greer. Schiffer Publishing Ltd./Exton, PA. 1981.
Domestic Pottery of the Northeastern United States, 1625-1850. Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh, Ed. Academic Press/New York. 1985.
The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine. M. Lelyn Branin. Wesleyan University Press/Middletown Ct. 1978.
Early Potters and Potteries of New York State. William Ketchum. Funk & Wagnalls/New York. 1970.
Raised in Clay, The Southern Pottery Tradition. Nancy Sweezy. Smithsonian Institution Press/Washington DC. 1984.
Clay in the Hands of the Potter. Rochester Museum and Science Center. An exhibition of pottery manufacture in the Rochester and Genesee Valley Region c. 1793-1900. 1974.
The Jug and Related Stoneware of Bennington. Cornelius Osgood. Charles Tuttle Co./Rutland, VT. 1971.
The Pottery of Whately, Massachusetts. Leslie Keno. Historic Deerfield Summer Fellowship Program/Deerfield, MA. 1978.
Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Lura Woodside Watkins. Harvard Univ Press/Cambridge MA. 1968.
Turners and Burners. Terry Zug. University of North Carolina Prerss/Chapel Hill, NC. 1986.
Episode 12. Keep Me Swimming.
Another bowl and then!
READING LIST:
The Concise Encyclopedia of Continental Pottery and Porcelain. Reginald Haggar. Hawthorn Books/New York. 1960.
Ceramics in America (1972). Quimby, Ian, Ed. University Press of Virginia/Charlottesville.
China-Trade Porcelain. John Goldsmith Phillips. Harvard University Press/Cambridge, MA. 1956.
If These Pots Could Talk. Ivor Noël Hume. University Press of New England/Hanover, NH. 2001.
Unearthing New England’s Past: The Ceramic Evidence. Exhibition Catalogue. Museum of Our National Heritage/Lexington, MA. 1984.
Episode 13. Bartmann Greybeard, A Cautionary Tale.
Facing up to demons, both inner and outer.
READING LIST:
Galileo’s Daughter. Dava Sobel. Walker & Co./New York. 1999.
If These Pots Could Talk. Ivor Noel Hume. Chipstone Press. 2001.
Stoneware: White Salt-Glazed, Rhenish and Dry Body. Gérard Gusset. National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada/Ministry of the Environment, Ottawa, Canada. 1980.
The Concise Encyclopedia of Continental Pottery and Porcelain. Reginald Haggar. Hawthorn Books/New York. 1960.
Episode 14. The First Pot Made in America.
Who, what, where, and when. The only question is why.
READING LIST:
The Emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Barnett and Hoopes, ed.s. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1995.
1491. New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Charles C. Mann. Knopf/New York. 2005.
Episode 15. The Sweep of History.
The only thing that really matters.
READING LIST:
The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine. M. Lelyn Branin. Wesleyan University Press/Middletown Ct. 1978.
Episode 16. Kublai Khan.
What a long strange trip it’s been..
READING LIST:
The Concise Encyclopedia of Continental Pottery and Porcelain. Reginald Haggar. Hawthorn Books/New York. 1960.
Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Lura Woodside Watkins. Harvard Press/Boston. 1968.
A Descriptive Dictionary for 500 Years of Spanish-Tradition Ceramics. 13th through 19th Centuries. Florence and Robert Lister ed.s. Special Publication Series, Number 1/The Society for Historical Archeology. 1980.
If These Pots Could Talk. Ivor Noël Hume. University Press of New England/Hanover, NH. 2001.
Episode 17. 41°43 55″N 49°56 45″W
It’s like what happens when you piece together a jigsaw puzzle. Sort of.
READING LIST:
American Stonewares. Georgeanna Greer. Schiffer Publishing Ltd./Exton, PA. 1981.
Ceramics in America. Quimby, Ian, Ed. University Press of Virginia/Charlottesville. 1972.
The Concise Encyclopedia of Continental Pottery and Porcelain. Reginald Haggar. Hawthorn Books/New York. 1960.
If These Pots Could Talk. Ivor Noël Hume. University Press of New England/Hanover, NH. 2001.
North Devon Pottery and its Export to America in the 17th Century. C. Malcolm Watkins. Smithsonian Inst./Wash DC. 1960.
Clay in the Hands of the Potter, An exhibition of pottery manufacture in the Rochester and Genesee Valley Region c. 1793-1900. Rochester Museum and Science Center. 1974.
Stoneware: White Salt-Glazed, Rhenish and Dry Body. Gérard Gusset. National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada/Ministry of the Environment, Ottawa, Canada. 1980.
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Episode 18. The True Story of the Industrial Revolution.
Be careful what you ask for, because you may well get it.
READING LIST:
Pratt Ware. John and Griselda Lewis. Antique Collector’s Club/Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. 1984.