Backcountry Notes

The most well-known North Carolina art pottery catalog is the J. B. Cole Pottery 1940 Catalogue - - but it is not the first J. B. Cole publication.  There exists a scarcer, earlier version usually referred to as the 1932 catalog, although the date is approximate.  An original copy of this catalog has so far eluded my grasp, but it is reproduced at pages 20-21 of "Seagrove Pottery - - The Walter and Dorothy Auman Legacy," by Quincy Scarborough and Robert Armfield (see North Carolina Pottery - Books and References). 

The reproduction shows a two-page broadside or brochure captioned "Cole's Pottery Company" with the address Steeds, N.C. Scarborough and Armfield date the publication as "ca. 1935" and state, "These Cole Family shapes are from either C. C. Cole's or J. B. Cole's shop."  I am confident that this publication came from J. B. Cole's Pottery, for several reasons, even though it is not so identified.  Reason one: C. C. Cole hadn't opened his shop in 1935.  Reason two: J. B. Cole's Pottery was the only Cole family shop with a Steeds address in the first eight years of the 1930s.  Reason three: the pots shown in the publication have a high correspondence to J. B. Cole products (and far less to other Cole operations).  While many of the forms shown were produced by other Cole family potteries, others were not, and certainly not by C. C. Cole's Pottery.

So my working assumption is that the Scarborough and Armfield reproduction in fact is the J. B. Cole catalog from circa 1932. This assumption of course is subject to change based on additional evidence. If any readers have more (or different) information about the "J. B. Cole 1932 catalog," please let me know.

There are some interesting points which follow from that conclusion.  The J. B. Cole 1932 Catalog illustrates 244 pieces, identified by serial number and size. The number of pieces included in the 1940 catalog is much greater, exceeding five hundred.  The number of pieces illustrated in the 1932 catalog may have been limited by the format, but it is likely that new forms and new sizes evolved between 1932 and 1940.  (Note: there are pre-WWII J. B. Cole pieces which appear in neither catalog; some of the un-cataloged pieces may have been experiments or limited or special productions, others may have been turned by journeymen.)  The J. B. Cole family potters were very competitive and responded readily to adversities, changes in customer tastes, and new opportunities.

When the 1940 catalog was put together, a similar system of identification by serial number and size was employed, with the addition of letter indicators preceding the serial number - - W for Waymon Cole, N for Nell Graves, G for Phil Graves, and B for Bascom King.  The addition of letter indicators was not necessary to keep track of orders, or of who was turning what.  Evidently its purpose was to differentiate between orders using the old and new catalogs.  That necessity resulted in a valuable resource for North Carolina art pottery students and collectors, since the 1940 catalog can be used to attribute many pieces to specific turners. 

In some instances, there is an exact correspondence between the 1932 and 1940 listings.  For example: 223-9" [1932] is the same form and size as W96-9" [1940]; 243-11" [1932] is the same form and size as G278-11" [1940]; 17-5" [1932] is the same form and size as N179-5" [1940].  In other instances, there are differences in size. For example, 81-14" [1932] corresponds to W175-15" [1940]; 127-4½" [1932] corresponds to N120-5" [1940].  There are examples of same form, added size - - 102-19" [1932] corresponds to both W158-19" [1940] and W155-21" [1940].  Some comparisons indicate the increasing popularity of certain pieces; for example, the 1932 catalog listed three Rebecca jugs (54-10½", 97-14", and 100-17½") while the 1940 catalog lists six Rebeccas (W5-4½", W118-8", W26-12", W136-15½", W143-20", and W165-36").

The lists of colors also indicate the the shop's production had followed changing tastes.  Here are the two lists, with the colors which appear in both italicized:

1932: Gun Metal, Yellow, Blue Green, Rose, Dark Green, Turquoise, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Blue and White, Speckled Brown, Brown, Black and Green, Rose and Green, Peacock Blue, Ivory.

1940: Yellow, White, Rose, Dark Blue, Alice Blue, Periwinkle Blue, Turquiose, Blue-Green, Enamel-Green, Peacock Blue, Blue and White, Orange, Rust and Antique.

There are colors and color combinations known to exist which do not appear in either list.  Blue-and-white (blue overdipped with white) is listed but green-and-white and rose-and-white are omitted, although pieces from the 1930s are known to exist.

If Scarborough and Armfield are correct in dating the catalog at 1935, that would put its publication in the same time frame as the end of the Sunset Mountain Pottery line sold by Treasure Chest of Asheville, N.C., a major J. B. Cole customer from 1929 until 1935.  Possibly the catalog reflected a need to find a new sales outlet after thr Sunset Mountain Pottery connection was terminated.