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HILTON CATAWBA VALLEY NORTH CAROLINA ART POTTERY MUG
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HILTON CATAWBA VALLEY NORTH CAROLINA ART POTTERY MUG
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Up for auction is a North Carolina Art Pottery, Utilitarian Mug or Cup with a Local "Home Made" Aklaline-Shangai, Brown Colored Glaze in Mint Condition and Attributed to the Hilton Family of the Catawba Valley Region of North Carolina. During my North Carolina Art Pottery research efforts, I have learned that the Catawba Valley Potters were a bit behind the Seagrove Area Potters when it came to making art pottery. It wasn't like they didn't make any art pottery, but it wasn't to the same degree as it was within the Seagrove area. This was due to the regional location of the Catawba Valley which made it necessary to continue making utilitarian wares for a decade or so longer than it had been in the Seagrove area. The Catawba Valley area still had the demand for the utilitarian ware and these wares remained at the forefront of their production. Any early art pottery wares they made were secondary items made for the tourist season or upon request. However their were a few potters already becoming more and more interested in testing their creative skills and later many of the utilitarian wares were done in more vibrant art pottery glazes. This wonderful alkaline glaze, tobbaco spit-like colored mug has all the characteristics that you can find in the earliest of the Catawba Valley art pottery and utilitarian wares. The clays in the region were much different than the Seagrove area clays and within the region itself t were more differences in the clay depending on w you found it. As the art pottery began to develop in the valley the potters began to realize that much of the local clay had the plasticity needed for larger utilitarian items, but was not as favorable fo making art pottery. It is well documented that Catawba Valley potters would travel to haul clay from other areas that they could more easily use for art pottery vessels. One of their main sources was the Mitchfield-Auman clay pit that was located within the Seagrove boundaries. They also used Albany slip clay from Albany, New York for glazing, but again they had also designed their own brown glazing techniques or "Home Made" glazes and this also included an alkaline or Shanghai glaze like this mug has. The 2 pottery making materials that were purchased from outside of the area were the Albany slip clay and a cobalt blue for decorating. Because of this, methods were developed to use these materials sparingly in order to have a more cost effective production. Their was also another factor involved in how the wares would come out and this was the local clays. These clays had impurities in them that would create interesting glaze anomalies and effects within the glazes of the finished pieces. In some cases and I believe also for keeping production costs down, they would mix their local clays with other clays. In fact, the famous Catawba Valley Swirl Glazes came about as a result of clay mixing. This particular mug / cup example has all the characteristics of the early Catawba Valley, North Carolina Art Pottery clay types and glazing styles. The main realization of all this is that you will find a large variety of different clays and glaze techniques used when it comes to Catawba Valley wares. Admittedly, I am no glaze expert or clay expert and I have much more to learn when it comes to North Carolina pottery whether it be old utilitarian wares or art pottery. However, I am constantly studying and paying keen attention to detail. When you view the bottom of this piece, you can see a bit of the original clay color showing through and although it is an orangish color much like Seagrove clay it doesn't appear to be the same as the Seagrove orange clay. However, I have seen this clay color on several Catawba Valley examples. When you study this regions early and transitional wares you can also find similar glaze colors with some of the same anomilies as this mug has. These can be caused by impurities in the clay as well as other factors that involved how they made their Local "Home Made" Catawba Valley glazes. T is one other very compelling factor that lea...
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