There is no question that this is my favorite type of twentieth century red earthenware production from North Carolina! This excellent Chinese blue glazed red earthenware vase made in Seagrove, North Carolina after 1922 is marked on the base “Jugtown Ware.” The size of this vase is also one of the largest that I have seen standing just over eleven inches tall, where a number of the known vases in this shape are eight to nine inches in height, as well as not as wide towards the base.
Interestingly, a friend told me yesterday that he felt the form of this vase was inspired by ceramics made during the Han Dynasty in China; whereas, this type of production was directly inspired from ancient Chinese, Korean and Persian shapes as well as glazes that the proprietors and potter of this business studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan during this period. These types of wares were also sold in a store near the MET that the proprietors established, where some of the early Jugtown pottery was shipped to the New York City marketplace.
According to an academic thesis written by Mary Jean Crawford for the University of North Carolina in 1962, titled, Jugtown Pottery: History and Design, “When the present Jugtown first began operations in 1917, its output was almost exclusively the traditional and utilitarian shapes. But some years later, Tiffany Studios in New York, a customer of Jugtown Pottery, suggested that they make some decorative pieces.”
Chinese pottery found in museums and libraries in New York City, especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art, served as inspiration, with an emphasis of the pottery made during the Han, Tang and Sung dynasties. Artist Jacques Busbee (1870-1947) and Jugtown potter Ben Owen (1904-1983) brought these unfamiliar shapes to North Carolina, and ancient pottery made in China, Persia and Korea provided them with motivation.
Crawford additionally says, “The Chinese blue or blue-green glaze was Jugtown’s most prized glaze and, according to one authority, some of the best pieces of Jugtown Pottery, usually the Chinese translations, had the Chinese blue glaze. Mr Busbee mixed this glaze, and after his death, his wife Juliana Busbee (1876-1962) requested that, in memory of her husband, the blue-green glaze not be used on Jugtown Pottery. Ben Owen said only Mr Busbee knew the formula for this glaze.”
Juliana Busbee was also instrumental in the marketing of Jugtown Pottery in the north, by setting up a Village Store in Greenwich Village in New York City in the latter part of 1917, later located at 37 East 60th Street. The shop was originally stocked with wares made by utilitarian potters in North Carolina who had their own kick wheels, manufacturing shapes familiar to them, although the Busbees decided they wanted to go beyond this type of inventory. The Busbees eventually worked with such potters as J.H. Owen (1866-1923), Charlie Teague (1901-1938) and Ben Owen. The marketing efforts of the Busbees eventually paid off by the time the Village Store closed in the late 1920s, with a North Carolina business that was thriving, drawing the attention of pottery enthusiasts from all over, and creating a lasting legacy, where Jugtown Pottery is an institution for pottery production today.
To be honest - it actually surprises me that the Metropolitan Museum of Art does not have one of these jars, a Persian type jar and other types of early Jugtown Ware on display with the rest of the American art pottery in the museum's Americana Wing, especially since some of the early Jugtown pottery was directly inspired by objects owned by the MET.
Furthermore, here is a link to a somewhat similar shaped and glazed jar that was acquired by the MET in 1913, which may in fact have been among the original sources of inspiration for these types of wares made in the 1920s and 1930s --
Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/49356
20th Century Chinese Blue Glazed Red Earthenware Vase from Seagrove, N.C.
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