In 2001–2002, Skelly and Loy completed the survey of historic pottery-making in Washington County in southwestern Virginia.[1] The survey built on previous work by Klell Napps and Roderick Moore. Archival research was undertaken to identify potters and place them in the landscape, and an archaeological survey was conducted at thirty locations suspected of being former pottery shops (fig. 1).
The archival research indicated that earthenware was produced locally by 1780; stoneware appeared by 1850. Major clusters of earthenware shops developed in Osceola and stoneware ones on Mendota Road. The stoneware was typical of the pan-Northeast tradition of salt glaze over freehand, with cobalt underglaze decoration (fig. 2). The fieldwork included revisits to two previously excavated stoneware kilns, the discovery and sampling of seven stoneware shops, and the recording of the source of clay for several of the Osceola shops (fig. 3).
An interesting aspect of the Washington County study was the high degree of relatedness among the stoneware potters. Burrison and Zug have noted the clannish nature of pottery making in the South, and Washington County fits the pattern.[2] Thirty-eight of the forty-three known stoneware potters in the county are linked by descent, marriage, or shared workplace (fig. 4). Potting followed bloodlines: the Wootons, Vestals, Millers, Magees, and Gardners, for example, featured multiple generations of potters, which is consistent with the lack of formal potter apprenticeships found in the county records.
The major potting families strengthened their network through marriage. In most cases these links were in all likelihood simply the result of marrying within one’s social circle. In other cases, however, the individual marrying into a clay family appears to have had no prior potting experience.
The potters were also linked as coworkers. It was common for many of the county potters to work in multiple shops with different coworkers as shops opened, evolved, moved, or closed. By 1870, it appears that there were few strangers in the pottery business in Washington County.
Fluidity, a second trait of the potters, refers to the ease with which a potter could move from one shop to another. In Washington County, the high relatedness allowed much fluidity. For example, although the Wootons were an established potting family, some remained in the Osceola shops even after John T. Wooton opened his shop on Mendota Road. Likewise, excavations at the Gardner kiln yielded more stamps of "E. W. MORT ALUM WELLS, VA and “J. M. BARLOW” than of “J. W. GARDNER & SON / CRAIGS MILL, VA.,” and there is no question that Gardner owned this shop and that Mort and Barlow had their own shops elsewhere on Mendota Road at that time. Clearly, Mort and Barlow were making pottery at the Gardner shop and the Gardners were allowing them to continue using their own stamps.[3]
The high degree of relatedness among the potters made it easy for a potter to follow work; by the same token, that very fluidity would have acted as a buffer against shortfalls of clay, fuel, orders, and/or capital. Washington County stoneware potters reaped the full benefits of fluidity without having to move beyond their local network of shops. The use of foreign stamps at the Gardner kiln might reflect some sort of etiquette associated with the movement of potters between shops. As research continues in the county, additional ties should be recognized.[4]
Christopher T. Espenshade
Cultural Resource Specialist
Skelly and Loy, Inc.
<cespenshade@monroeville.skellyloy.com>
