The definition of a silhouette is the outline of a solid figure as cast by its shadow and filled in with black or a dark color, which was often a profile portrait cut out of black paper and mounted on a light ground. But this was also a decorative technique used by some stoneware potters in America and Canada in the nineteenth century; the most prolific examples of this type of production today are likely silhouetted figures that were produced in Morgantown, West Virginia during the circa 1854-1863 period, as well as a jar adorned with Civil War soldiers that was made at a spinoff Morgantown business in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, circa 1861-1864. These objects are displayed today as part of the William and Susan Mariner Gallery at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Another notable object from the Mariner Collection that also exhibits silhouetted figures is an eleven inch nineteenth century stoneware churn decorated with an elaborate scene made by Thomas Mitchell Chandler Jr. (1810-1854) for his aunt and uncle in Baltimore, Maryland. In fact, the churn was acquired by the Mariners directly from descendant's of the family, where it had resided since 1829, and is undoubtedly one of the most important examples of southern pottery in existence. Afterwards, Chandler migrated south for employment in Edgefield, South Carolina, which he has garnered some fame for today.
According to Katherine C. Hughes, "The churn displays an agricultural landscape, with a detailed farmhouse, outbuilding, cow, five trees, and a woman churning butter in her own decorated churn. The churn is marked on its side "Mitchel Chandler" and the year "1829", and inscribed on the bottom "Thomas M. Chandler / Maker / Baltimore / August 12 / 1829."
But there were other stoneware businesses that produced pottery with silhouetted figures, including the Somerset, Massachusetts Potters Works in the late 1800s, and John Charles Waelde's (1819-1903) production on the shore of Oneida Lake in North Bay, Oneida County, New York, circa 1851 to 1876. An 1874 map published as part of the U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps shows that the J.C. Waelde Pottery was situated directly on the shore of Oneida Lake, which must have presented export opportunities to a number of communities located along the lake in New York.
Furthermore, Waelde's pottery is some of the most interesting cobalt decorated stoneware made in Upstate New York in the nineteenth century, whereas Waelde was a migrant German potter, arriving in the United States about 1847; he was actually born Johannes Fuerchtegott Waelde on August 13, 1819 in Wurtemburg, Germany, where he was baptized two days later on August 15 in Evangelisch, Esslingen, Neckarkreis, Wuerttemberg.
Additionally, Waelde's obituary provides some important information about his lifetime in America, which was published in the February 26, 1903 issue of The Rome (New York) Daily Sentinel: "John C. Waelde, a respected citizen of Schenevus, died at his residence there Feb. 20 aged nearly eighty-four years. He was born in Wurtemburg, Germany. At the age of twenty-seven he came to this country and lived a short time at Westmoreland. Then he settled at North Bay and engaged in the manufacture of stoneware. There he lived twenty-eight years. He was well known throughout a large portion of Oneida County. The remainder of his life was passed in retirement at Schenevus. He was a man of strong convictions of honesty. His motto was 'owe no man anything.' He worked early and late until his vital forces wore out and then died without sickness. His wife and six children survive him (two other children were deceased)."
It is unclear why Waelde originally went to Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, although there was likely a stoneware business already in operation there, which was owned by a farmer/potter named Dwight W. Graves (1822-1889), who is first cited as owning a business in 1850, although he could have been operating it a few years prior. Some of Graves' stoneware production is owned today by the Munson Williams Museum in Utica, New York.
Waelde married Jane Shaw Downey (1824-1914), who migrated from Ireland in 1844 in Ithaca, New York on May 6, 1850; Waelde (spelled Waldo) was also working as a potter in Cortland, New York in the 1850 United States Federal Census. However, by 1851, Waelde owned his own stoneware business in the Town of North Bay, which was incorporated as a city in 1925; his residency in North Bay is further supported since this is where the couple's daughter Sarah Waelde (1851-1940) was born, which was their first born child.
The wares produced at the J.C. Waelde Pottery in North Bay include both hand-applied and stenciled cobalt designs. The figural decorations include a variety of birds, deer, cows, rabbits, squirrels, eagles and leaves. Other designs include patriotic emblems. Some 1855 billheads in existence indicate the forms included jugs, cream pots, butter churns, preserve jars, pitchers, flowerpots, chamber pots and spittoons.
It also seems that Waelde was the only member of his family involved with the production of utilitarian pottery; he only had two sons, Erwin Waelde (1852-1940, who worked for the railroad, while William Waelde (1870-1889) died before he was twenty-years-old. None of his daughter's husbands seem to have been potters, therefore it is possible that Waelde may have had other people working for him.
I also want to note that it appears that some previous twentieth century published information about Waelde may not be accurate, seeing that it was published in one source, and then recited in others that Waelde died in North Bay about 1880. However, his obituary and gravestone indicates he died in 1903, where he is buried today in Schenevus Cemetery in Schenevus, Otsego County, New York, which is located about 85 miles southeast of North Bay.
He also had to have relocated to Schenevus sometime around the time that his stoneware business closed about 1876 to 1880, since he is listed with a profession of "laborer" in Schenevus in the 1880 United States Federal Census. Interestingly, the 1900 United States Federal Census in Schenevus indicates that Waelde was now blind so this may have been the reason (or part of the reason) that he ended his pottery career about 1876.
Additionally, here is a link to a YouTube video with Brandt Zipp of Crocker Farm discussing the significance of this production in North Bay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXj_-Slazyc.
Nevertheless, there is a very good example of Waelde's production included in the good stoneware collection that I have been writing about, which is currently available at Antiques Associates At West Townsend in Massachusetts; this two-gallon stoneware jug is decorated with a stenciled perched bird and free-hand cobalt decoration. The "2" gallon capacity is also applied in brushed cobalt, where the jug is stamped "J.C. WAELDE / NORTH BAY."
Here is a link to the jug: https://www.aaawt.com/antique/stoneware-jug-marked-j-c-waelde-north-bay-cobalt-decorated/.
For more information - contact A.A.A.W.T.: https://www.aaawt.com/about/
Note: For more literature on this subject - see Christopher Bensch's exhibit catalog from 1987, titled, The Blue and the Gray: Oneida County Stoneware: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Gray-Stoneware-Exhibition-Catalogue/dp/0915895056.
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