EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Christopher Alexander Haun: An Important 19th Century East Tennessee Red Earthenware Potter Who Died Unexpectedly During the Civil War

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Christopher Alexander Haun: An Important 19th Century East Tennessee Red Earthenware Potter Who Died Unexpectedly During the Civil War

Regionally, potters in a historical context have interesting memoirs that they could share today with how their perception or reality appeared with the circumstances that surrounded them during the years that led up to the American Revolution - and, the years that followed. For example, there are actual documents that reveal that some potters fought during the Revolutionary War; however, the acts of oppression that many potters also suffered, as a result of the revolution, hampered many potter's businesses before, during and after the war. These stories have not been entirely told from the potters point of view today - even though, I think it would be a fascinating story for anyone to hear.

The American Civil War also took its toll on the American potter's industry - especially, the potters who were employed in the southern states. The Civil War is responsible for many examples of southern pottery being destroyed - which I could only begin to realize what important pottery may have been lost forever during the 1861-1865 period.

Today, I would like to focus on an area that I have, yet to write about on this website - the Great Road pottery made in eastern Tennessee in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. According to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum in Ferrum, Virginia, "The Great Road was a name given to a section of the primary route from Philadelphia west to Tennessee or Kentucky. It followed the Indian Trail known as the Great Warrior Path along river valleys and through mountain passes. From Philadelphia to Roanoke, Virginia, it was called the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road, and from Roanoke west it was simply known as the Great Road. It served people traveling by horse and on foot from 1770, and by 1796 it was open to wagons at least as far as Abingdon in Washington County, Virginia."

There's no doubt the stories that could be told by the nineteenth-century Great Road potters is countless; however, the east Tennessee potter, Christopher Alexander Haun is a story that I would like to share today since he combines a particular interest in the Civil War.

Christopher Haun was a potter from Greene County, Tennessee, who threw red earthenware in an area known as Pottertown, which was a location know for its Union views during the Civil War. Haun was a part-time potter which helped supplement his income as a full-time farmer; although, his surviving wares are considered some of the most beautiful and accomplished wares made in the American south today. He may have seen more success in his lifetime as a potter if he had been employed in an urban area, but that's debatable. For a New England comparison - Haun can be compared today to some of the rural Maine potters who also used the potter's craft as a means to supplement their income in the 1820-1880 period. I'm not comparing Haun's work to these Maine potters - rather, I am suggesting that he operated in a similar manner.

It's also merely a coincidence today that Haun drew his clay from a nearby source at Lick Creek, which would later become a location that would develop into a deciding factor in Haun's unfortunate fate.

The Knoxville, Tennessee auctioneer, John Case told a brief story about Haun's untimely death recently on his company's website in connection to an important green-glazed red earthenware ring bottle, that was made by Haun, which sold for more than $30,000 in 2014; "Christopher Haun was a Union sympathizer during the Civil War and participated in burning a Confederate railroad bridge (Lick Creek) in Greene County, Tennessee. This important event in East Tennessee Civil War history was initiated with a campaign by Union loyalists to burn nine bridges. It was led by William B. Carter and strongly supported and encouraged by President Abraham Lincoln. Several potters from the Pottertown, Tennessee area were among the men who conspired and succeeding the bridge. The potters decided not to capture or kill the Confederated bridge guards, but allowed them to go free based upon their solemn promises to not reveal their identities. Union troops did not materialized as promised and the Confederates were able to pursue and capture some of the perpetrators. The Confederate guards, who were allowed to live, were the very ones who served as witnesses to implicate the five men who were hung, four of them potters. Among those sentenced to death was the potter Christopher Alexander Haun. On December 11th, 1861, Haun was hung from the gallows in Knoxville, Tennessee."

C.A. Haun Departing from His Family Before Execution - December 11, 1861

Wood Engraving Published in 1862

Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress - Washington, D.C.

Auction Central News described the ring bottle and what museum it will appear at in a recent online article, "(The ring bottle) is as fresh as the day it was made. The form was glazed in a bright snake green produced by copper oxide and covered in complex pressed patterns. Purchased with a purpose in mind, the unusual form is headed to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where it will go on display in the William C. and Susan S. Mariner Southern Ceramics Gallery scheduled to open in October of 2015."

Knoxville, TN Auctioneer John Case Holding the Ring Bottle

Photo Courtesy: Auction Central News

19th Century Green Glazed Red Earthenware Ring Bottle

Produced by Christopher Alexander Haun - Greene County, TN

Photo Courtesy: Case Antiques - Knoxville, TN

Another View of the Ring Bottle

Photo Courtesy: Case Antiques - Knoxville, TN

Another View of the Ring Bottle

Photo Courtesy: Case Antiques - Knoxville, TN

Case Antiques Auctions & Appraisals in Knoxville has handled the majority of Haun's rare work in recent years; although, it is also believed that there are significant examples still held in private collections today. There are likely previously undiscovered or undocumented examples, too.

Shown below are a number of the prominent examples that Case Antiques has handled since 2007. These are the only examples that I have been able to find through auction results online, that sold publicly, which were either stamped by Haun's mark (C.A. HAUN) or attributed to Haun in the past ten-years. Despite any obvious damage or wear found on some of the objects below, it shouldn't be surprising, either that each of these examples, sold for very-strong amounts.