About Sand Mountain Pottery 2001

A visitor to our recent plant sale asked me what I knew about Sand Mountain Pottery and I began remembering what I had heard and read on the subject.  It seems the visitor owns a Sand Mountain Pottery churn — a valuable piece of pottery.

Several years ago we attended a most interesting auction in Fort Payne and saw such a churn sell for $950 and later a pitcher sold for $750.  The pottery has a runny look to it and the auctioneer called it “tobacco spit finish.”  Daddy chewed tobacco, so I’m familiar with what tobacco spit looks like. Mother called it ambeer.  We would whitewash the area around the fireplace and, much to Mother’s dismay, when Daddy spit that “juice” it splattered on the whitewash.  I remember how we dug the clay used for the whitewash. There was/is a high bank on the side of  a ditch down the road from our house where we used to dig; however,  I don’t believe the clay is still there or at least I haven’t had the need to look for it.

Back to the subject — in reading about Sand Mountain Pottery, it seems the finish is called Edgefield.  The potters who came to Sand Mountain in the late 1800’s, apparently, came from or through Edgefield, S. C.; and possibly had learned the trade there.  It’s a brownish – greenish look — somewhat mottled and runny looking.  Some of the pottery has a design on it called “combed.”  It looks as though the potter took an object such as a comb and dragged it around the jug/pitcher while it was still wet leaving a curvy design.  Another distinguishing mark of the pottery is said to be a thumb print where the handle is fastened onto the piece. Very few pieces are signed and/or dated — but, of course, the ones that are are much more valuable.

Yesterday when I visited a friend who had suffered a fall (to deliver sourdough bread), I was being shown some lovely pottery pieces such as Hull and Roseville and I happened to ask if she owned Sand Mountain Pottery.  Of course, she did and it was signed by T. J. Henry.  How lucky can one be?

For several years John and I hosted a quilt show here on the Windy Knoll.  It was called Quilt Show on the Farm and was very lucrative fund-raiser on behalf of The Geraldine Library.  One year we featured Sand Mountain Pottery, which turned out to be a real highlight of the show. We borrowed pottery pieces for the display, which was in our bay room and closely guarded.  Today I wouldn’t do that because of security reasons.

Around the turn of the century (1900) there was a “jug factory” in the community called Belchers — this is in south DeKalb County at the top of the mountain very near the Etowah County line.  Names such as Davidson, McPherson and Henry are said to have been the potters there and they hauled the pottery to Limestone County and even as far away as Rome, GA   — on steer-drawn wagons.  Kaolin, the clay used to make pottery, was found on the side of Sand Mountain near Belchers making this a prime spot for such a factory.  I’m told a few shards can still be found in the area.

In years gone by we had no idea the ugly-looking pottery would be so valuable some day. Mother kept her lye soap in a two-gallon churn and it was pushed back under the bench that held the washtubs in the well shelter. I’ve heard others say they fed their dogs out of these pieces because they were so ugly.

Some eight or ten yeas ago the Birmingham Museum of Art sent a rep here to photograph Alabama-made items made prior to 1930. Here again I had borrowed a number of Sand Mountain Pottery pieces for them to photograph.  We had churns of various sizes, pitchers, jugs and bowls.  I don’t know why I didn’t make some pictures for myself.

Keep your eyes and ears open.  Who knows, you may discover a piece of Sand Mountain Pottery in an old barn, shed or wherever.  The quest for such gives a special interest to country living.