North Carolina Pottery Vases

Beautiful rounded vase is decorated with light to dark oxblood red ombre craquelure glaze; the glaze is in high gloss finish and is smooth to the touch. The inner surfaces are finished with semi-gloss off-white glaze. The vase is in good vintage condition; it is marked and dated on the bottom. Inspired by the Arts Crafts Movement, Walter B. Stephen and his mother began their first pottery, Nonconnah, near Memphis, Tennessee about 1904. Without prior experience, they produced slip-decorated pottery of exceptional merit. Stephen moved to Skyland, North Carolina, in 1913, where he established a second Nonconnah Pottery, the first full-time art pottery in the state. In 1926, Stephen began the operation of his third pottery, Pisgah Forest. Here he explored Oriental glazes and forms, pioneered the first crystalline glazes in the South, and developed his cameo wares which resemble English Wedgewood jasperwares. Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah pottery have gained national recognition from numerous museums and private collectors. Major exhibitions of Stephen’s work have been held at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, the Asheville Art Museum, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California, the McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC, North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, NC, and Southern Highland Craft Guild, Asheville, NC. Bibliography: Leftwich, Rodney Henderson. Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah: The Potteries of Walter B. Stephen. Bradenton FL...