19th Century Lead Glazed Earthenware Dish with Slip-Decoration from Alamance County, North Carolina

According to an article written by Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton for the 2010 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, Solomon Loy: Master Potter of the Carolina Piedmont, "Solomon Loy (1805-before 1865) emerged as a master potter during the second quarter of the nineteenth century - a period of technological and stylistic transition in North Carolina's ceramic history. Although trained as an earthenware potter in a tradition distinguished by the use of polychrome slip decoration, Loy responded to demand for more durable forms with nonreactive coatings by making salt-glazed stoneware. Many of his salt-glazed vessels have trailed slip designs that relate to those on his earthenware as well as pottery associated with earlier members of his extended family. 

To say Loy was born into a "clay clan" may be something of an understatement, as his father, father-in-law, uncles, brothers, and possibly his great-grandfather were potters. He also trained his son, nephew, grandsons, and neighbors.

Several stoneware vessels documented to Loy survive, but an earthenware dish decorated with triangles on the marley is the only object in that medium bearing his full name."

Interestingly, a lead glazed earthenware dish exhibiting a very similar slip-decoration, but lacking the name of the potter recently sold at Leland Little Auctions in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The dish was attributed to Alamance County, and was possibly made by Solomon Loy.

Similar and related examples of lead glazed earthenware are currently displayed in the William C. and Susan S. Mariner Southern Ceramics Gallery at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Art Museums at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Note: The links highlighted in the above paragraph will redirect the reader to some stories I published on this website last summer, which demonstrate some of the related wares in existence today.

Alamance County, NC Lead Glazed Earthenware Dish

19th Century Lead Glazed Earthenware Dish with Slip-Decoration

Attributed to Alamance County, NC

Possibly Made by Solomon Loy in Alamance County, NC

Measures 10 3/8" in Diameter

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Leland Little Auctions 

View of the Back

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Photo Courtesy: Leland Little Auctions 

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