EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Recently Discovered Rare 19th Century Great Road Jar from Either East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

A Recently Discovered Rare 19th Century Great Road Jar from Either East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia

According to an article that ran a few years ago in the 'Antiques and Arts Weekly,' "There are exciting times in East Tennessee as new discoveries in Great Road pottery manufacturing are making their way into the public forum. Although pottery from these parts was known by aficionados since Roddy Moore's 1983 article in 'The Magazine Antique,' it took the 2008 auction of a John Alexander Lowe (1833-1902) signed jar made in Greene County to catch the attention of the general antiques world. At that time it was the only known signed Lowe piece of pottery and it realized the princely sum of $63,000, including buyer's premium - it was the highest price ever paid for Tennessee pottery.

The Great Road was the name given to the route, which began in Philadelphia and 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 Trail. From Roanoke west it was known simply as the Great Road. Towns developed around stage stops, way stations and inns. Early settlers included Germans, Scots-Irish, English, Welsh, slaves and free blacks."

Arguably, the most prominent red earthenware name among the East Tennessee potter's industry in respect to how this area is perceived today within a historical context is arguably Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861); although, there were a number of accomplished potters in this part of Tennessee, which included the Haun family, the Cain family, among many others.

According to the recent article, 'The Conspiracy at Lick Creek' written for the New York Times, "In Early November 1861, a group of potters and farmers gathered at the Greene County, Tennessee home of Henry and Jacob Harmon. There, the brothers, joined by Christopher Haun, Henry Fry and Jacob Hinshaw, finalized their plot to destroy the nearby Lick Creek railroad bridge on November 8. This was no local conspiracy, however. More than 100 fellow East Tennessee Unionists plotted to simultaneously burn eight other railroad bridges as far away as northeast Alabama, effectively serving all rail and telegraph connection between Virginia and the heartland of the Confederacy.

The Lick Creek bridge would go up in flames that night. The bridge attacks were the brainchild of longtime Carter County, Tennessee resident, the Reverend William Blount Carter, in conjunction with his brother, Union General Samuel P. Carter. Mr. Carter had traveled to Washington earlier in the year, where in a meeting at the White House with General George B. McClellan and President Lincoln, he secured Union military and political support.

The Lick Creek conspiracy went awry almost immediately after the night of November 8. The conspirators let the bridge guards, whom they had captured before they burned the bridge, go after they took the oath of allegiance to the Union. It was a fatefully naive move; the guards immediately notified Confederate authorities. The Harmons and Mr. Haun would be hanged at the Knoxville, Tennessee jail (pictured in engraving below), while Henry Fry and Jacob Hinshaw met their fate at the end of a nearby rope in nearby Greeneville, Tennessee."

C.A. Haun Before Hanging

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

Wood Engraving Published in 1862
See Article for More Information

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

Recently, I was able to acquire a rare small nineteenth century red earthenware jar from Pennsylvania antiques dealer, Jeff Graybill that is similar to another object, which sold at Crocker Farm in Maryland, and more recently at a Jeffrey Evans auction in Virginia. The jar was attributed to East Tennessee, where it shares characteristics with some of the more prominent objects from that region; although, a southwest Virginia attribution should not be ruled out, either. But, nonetheless, this jar is certainly an object that was made along the Great Road around the mid-nineteenth century.

Great Road Jar