Backcountry Notes

click on image for larger viewDuring the early North Carolina art pottery era, from the 1920s and 1930s until the late 1940s, J. B. Cole's Pottery and others glazed some of their products by dipping the pieces first in a colored glaze and then in a white glaze. These are sometimes called "antiqued" glazes.  The popularity of such pieces waned over time and they do not appear to have been made after the late 1940s.  The J. B. Cole white-overglaze pieces included rose and white, which is often called the "pink-blue" glaze by modern collectors.

In the J. B. Cole nomenclature used at the time, these glazes were designated by the colored underglaze first, then "and white."  J. B. Cole pieces are known in green and white, blue and white, and orange (chrome red) and white.  [See endnote 1.] The only such combination glaze listed in the 1940 Catalogue is blue and white.  There is a J. B. Cole piece apparently glazed in chrome red and white pictured in James, North Carolina Art Pottery at page 172, but with a poor result. 

The first of these white-overglaze pieces appear to have been made by Jugtown Pottery, which had a glaze called "black ankle" produced by dipping the ware first in a dark-brown slip glaze and then in white.  See James, North Carolina Art Pottery at pages 28, 93, 240.  White-overglaze pieces later were made by several potters.  In all cases, these glazes were challenging and unpredictable, producing a variety of results ranging from spectacular to abysmally ugly.

click on image for larger view

The variable results of the white-overdipped glazes are illustrated by the two pieces pictured above.  The vase on the left has the "pink-blue" glaze result, but the vase on the right came out a lightened color overall, probably because the white overglaze soaked into the rose underglaze.  The form is identified as G-395-8" in the 1940 J. B. Cole catalog and is attributed to Phil Graves.   The form, size, dimensions and weight of the two pieces are nearly identical in all respects.  The "pink-blue" piece weighs 1,336 grams; the light rose vase on the right weighs 1,330 grams, a difference of less than one-half of one per cent in finished weight.

click on image for larger view Above is an individual picture of the "pink-blue" piece.  Note the bluish tint to the light-colored areas.

click on image for larger viewThis picture shows the bottoms of the two pieces.  The "pink-blue" piece (left) is marked in pencil "201" and "R/W."  The orange areas on the bottoms of the pots are caused by a thin layer of glaze left over after the bottoms were wiped, before firing.

A closer view of the bottom of the "pink-blue" piece.  Note the light buff color of the clay, indicative of Michfield clay.  Note also the bluish color of the overglaze where it is thick around the bottom and the orange tone of the residual glaze on the bottom.

click on image for larger view This closer view shows the bluish tint in the overglaze and also dark blue specks which appear throughout the glaze.

Similar dark blue spots in the light-rose glaze.

click on image for larger view

A piece glazed in rose (no white overdip), attributed to J. B. Cole Pottery, for comparison.  The form is G-305 (1940 Catalogue).

Base of comparison piece, with an added legend which appears to be "201X."

click on image for larger view

Another example of rose and white; the form is G-308 (1940 Catalog).  The glaze characteristics appear to be the same as the G395 piece, including the blue flecks in the glaze.  All of the rose and white pieces I have found to date are forms attributed to Phil Graves, suggesting that he may have glazed them himself.

The two G395 pieces are as close to identical as you can get with hand-made, wheel-turned pots.   I am confident that they are from the 1930s, are very close in age and may have been glazed with the same glaze batches.  The notation "R/W" stands for "Rose/White."  The "pink-blue" look results from the pot having been dipped in the J. B. Cole Pottery "Rose" (darkish-pink) glaze and then overdipped with the J. B. Cole Pottery white.  The bluish tint in the white overglaze may result from its boron content.  The meaning of the penciled notation "201" is not immediately clear.  The smaller piece glazed in rose pink, form close to (although not exactly) G-305, appears to have the penciled notation "201X" on the bottom.  The evidence points to all such pieces being from the early 1930s (the Michfield clay, the forms, the glazes).  

The dark flecks in the glaze appear to be cobalt blue.  I speculate that they are accidental, resulting from contamination of the white glaze when over-dipping pieces glazed in the blue and white combination.  

The Cole white glaze was a fritted lead-fluxed glaze made from a different base (i.e., different combination of glaze-mixing ingredients) than the fritted lead glaze used for colors.  The base glazes were slightly incompatible, so that when a piece glazed with both (one over the other) was fired, they would separate to a certain extent.  The post-WWII green-over-white (malachite), blue-over-white (blue malachite), and brown-over-white (brown sugar) glazes all rely to some extent on this incompatibility. 

click on image for larger viewENDNOTE 1:  The piece pictured at right is glazed in green and white.  See also the J. B. Cole pieces pictured in Lock, The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, at page 53, and James, North Carolina Art Pottery, at page 170.  The vase pictured below is glazed in blue and white.

click on image for larger view

Update on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 01:24PM by Jay Henderson

North Carolina collector Peg Wiebe kindly sent me a picture of a Waymon Cole vase, 1940 Catalog form W-54, glazed in Rose and White.  Thus, while most of the Rose and White pieces I have seen to date are Phil Graves forms, the glaze combination was not exclusive to his work.