The Remarkable 19th-century Stoneware of Virginia's Lower James River Valley

摘要

NINETEENTH-CENTURY salt-glazed stoneware of the lower James River Valley has been actively collected for more than half a century, though little information about the potters and their wares has been documented in the literature. This article provides much-needed attributions, combining archaeological fragments from the production sites with surviving pieces in public and private collections. Most of the stoneware is embellished in blue cobalt, in styles from neoclassical to naturalistic. A surprisingly number of examples contains well-developed pictorial statements in themes from comic to political. Techniques include cobalt slip trailing, brushwork, and incising in the Germanic tradition with occasional nods to English brown stoneware and its forms. Many of die pieces are published for the first time. Viewed collectively, they reflect a bold decorative aesthetic rivaling long-recognized and celebrated schools of stoneware production seen elsewhere in eastern North America.