Southern Decorative Arts

“A Great Deal of Stone & Earthen Ware,” The Rockingham County, Virginia School of Folk Pottery

Jeffrey S. Evans and Scott Hamilton Suter
The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 2004
Published in conjunction with the HRHS exhibit of the same name.
This title is available through our online store.

Review from Kurt C. Russ, excerpted from the publication, Ceramics in America (2005):

“Presenting good-quality color photographs of those pieces with accompanying text in a well-conceived format, the catalog serves as an indispensable reference for Virginia pottery. The detailed captions highlight variations that are the basis for attributions as well as those that distinguish different potters, influences, or decorators. Associated photographs detailing important vessel attributes, such as capacity stamps, makers’ marks, handle types, and rim configurations, document variations among wares.”

“An intimate familiarity with local wares and an understanding of the broader industry allowed the co-curators to make attributions and to identify outside influences accounting for certain vessel types and their decorative embellishments. An example is their identification of the sunflower decoration on a stamped Mount Crawford crock (p. 67, no. 101) as resembling decoration on Alexandria stoneware. They interpret this design as being introduced by Shinnick or perhaps Duey, both of whom worked previously in Alexandria or Baltimore. Another example is their perceptive association that both the batter jug form (p. 104, no. 208) and the bird motif on a local vessel (p. 49, no. 54) resemble Cowden and Wilcox Pottery production. These examples speak to a broad understanding of ceramics both within and beyond the region. By limiting their study to wares from the region where they had conducted hands-on research, the authors successfully avoided the pitfalls of inaccurate attributions, errors of interpretation, omissions, and inadequate references inherent in broader considerations.”