While picking up an auction purchase yesterday in central Massachusetts, I tried to make the trip worthwhile so I decided to stop into a few shops, which is where I found this colorfully glazed twentieth century stoneware pitcher. On first sight, this object may appear like something made in New England in the 1800s, however the base is inscribed "GD." This initial represents the potter Guy Daugherty (1879-1958), who worked all over America during the span of his career.
Daugherty was an itinerant potter from Denton Texas, having started his pottery career in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and later worked in the summer months during the Great Depression and in the early years after World Word II in making pottery in East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York. He and other craftspeople - such as weavers and tinsmiths worked at the Roadside Craftsmen along Routes 5 and 20 just west of the village selling to tourists.
Daughterty's southern pottery heritage is reflected in some of the forms he made in New York. He also fired his wares in a groundhog kiln. Interestingly, he perhaps knew of the earlier red earthenware heritage in the Town of Bloomfield - he used a red-firing clay, and much of his production is covered in a glaze strikingly similar to that found on a lot of the wares made in West Bloomfield around the mid-1800s (as well as some of the wares made in Morganville, New York).
The wares were sometimes stamped "Roadside Craftsmen" and adhesive labels were also sometimes used. He also made larger wares marked "Bloomfield Art Pottery." He even occasionally incised objects with his initials "GD," and the last two digits of the year that the piece was made, such as "48" or "49." The shop closed in 1953.
Nonetheless, many students from the Alfred State School of Ceramics helped work with the glazing and firing of the pottery. One of the early glaze technicians for the pottery was Emil "Chip" G. Zschiegner (1905-1936). Emil G. Zschiegner received an undergraduate degree in Ceramic Art and Design from Alfred in 1930. All of this information can be found in the documentary "A Group of Spirited Works: A History of the Roadside Craftsmen," which was produced by Laurel C. Wemett.
Afterwards, Daugherty bought the pottery business in Bethune, Kersaw County, South Carolina, where he manufactured some stoneware face jugs in a traditional nineteenth century style, some of which also resemble face jugs made by the Brown family in Georgia and North Carolina. In fact, it was published in 2014 in Cinda K. Baldwin's book Great and Noble Jar, "A 1955 article in the State Magazine described Daugherty as "one of the few remaining 'old time' potters in the entire Southeast. . . who will be 77 years young on his next birthday [and that he] made his first piece of saleable pottery in 1888 when he was only ten years old."
Furthermore, this pitcher is thought to be an example of Daugherty's production from Bethune, which I thought was a really good example when I came across it because of the colorful glaze used on this object. From what I have seen - some of the wares that exist today from this term of his production are simply glazed dark brown.
A Southern Stoneware Pitcher Found in Central Massachusetts
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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