A good selection of early Jugtown pottery from Seagrove, North Carolina sold recently through various eBay sellers located in San Carlos, California, although I suspect it is all within the same branch of eBay dealers. I also suspect that the objects are all coming out of the same collection. But the most significant piece just sold last night, a very good Han Dynasty style double-handled vase decorated in a Chinese blue glaze, whereas the vase stands nine inches tall, and is impressed on the base "JUGTOWN WARE."
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.”
Nevertheless, this Han vase sold very reasonably last night for $320 sales tax and shipping fees.
Furthermore, I have also posted some of the other objects that have sold from this collection, which include six other examples of Chinese blue glazed pottery, and one of that I purchased for my collection. And of course, I will have to keep watching these sellers in order to see if any more of this type of pottery shows up from this collection on eBay in the future.
A Good Selection of Early Jugtown Pottery from N.C.
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