Blue Ridge (dishware)
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Blue Ridge is a brand and range of American
tableware Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, List of glassware, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variet ...
(
dishware Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of obj ...
) manufactured by Southern Potteries Incorporated from the 1930s until 1957. Well known in their day for their
underglaze Underglaze is a method of decorating pottery in which painted decoration is applied to the surface before it is covered with a transparent ceramic glaze and fired in a kiln. Because the glaze subsequently covers it, such decoration is completely ...
decoration and colorful patterns, Blue Ridge pieces are now popular items with collectors of antique dishware. The underglaze technique made the decorations more durable, and while basic patterns were reused consistently, the fact that each piece was hand-painted means that no two pieces are exactly alike.Betty Newbound, "Southern Potteries," ''Encyclopedia of Appalachia'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), p. 830. Blue Ridge dishware is rooted in a pottery established in
Erwin, Tennessee Erwin is a town in and the county seat of Unicoi County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,097 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City– Kingspo ...
around 1916 at the behest of the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad and chartered as Southern Potteries Incorporated in 1920. During the late 1920s, under the guidance of Charles Foreman, Southern Potteries implemented its underglaze decoration technique, which it began stamping with "Blue Ridge Hand Painted Underglaze" and similar variations in the following decade. Blue Ridge's free-style decorations helped it stand out against competitors, most of whom used dull, decal-decorated dishes. Although Southern Potteries eventually employed over 1,000 workers and had gained a foothold in major markets across the United States, the company was unable to overcome the onset of plastic dinnerware in the 1950s. The rise of various collectors' organizations in the 1980s helped make Blue Ridge a popular collectible item.


History

The Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad constructed a railroad line through the mountains of northeast Tennessee in the early 1900s. In an attempt to encourage industry along this line, they sold several acres of land along what is now Ohio Avenue in Erwin to several investors for the establishment of a pottery. The
kaolinite Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
and
feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...
deposits in the adjacent hills made Erwin an ideal place for the manufacture of ceramics, and the pottery plant was likely in operation by late 1916.William Helton (ed.), Albert Price, "Southern Potteries Incorporated," ''Around Home In Unicoi County'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1994), pp. 65-70. The plant initially had seven beehive
kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay in ...
— four for glaze and decorator firing, and three for
biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...
firing— and was surrounded by approximately forty houses for company employees. The earliest dishware produced at the Erwin plant consisted of gold-trimmed, decal-decorated dishes stamped under the name "Clinchfield Potteries." In April 1920, the pottery was incorporated under the name "Southern Potteries, Incorporated." E.J. Owen, an associate of the
Minerva, Ohio Minerva is a village primarily in Stark and Carroll counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, with a small district in Columbiana County. The population was 3,684 at the 2020 census. Most of Minerva is part of the Canton-Massillon metropolitan area ...
-based Owen China Company, was named the initial president of Southern Potteries, but, in 1922, the company was purchased by another Owen manager, Charles Foreman. Foreman expanded Southern Potteries in 1923, and within a few years replaced the coal-fired kilns with the newer oil-fired continuous-tunnel kilns, and introduced the underglaze painting technique. Dozens of local women were trained in the freehand painting process.Betty Newbound and Bill Newbound, ''Southern Potteries Incorporated Blue Ridge Dinnerware'' (Collector Books, 1984), pp. 6-9. Southern Potteries initially stamped its dishware pieces with the name "Southern Potteries," but in the 1930s had begun to use its now-famous "Blue Ridge" stamp, referring to the mountains surrounding Erwin. The bright, clear colors and uninhibited style of Blue Ridge dishware gave it an immediate edge over the rigid styles of decal-decorated dishware, and by 1938 Southern Potteries had transitioned entirely to a hand-painting operation. The plant employed 300 workers in 1940 and its dishware was being marketed in showrooms across the country, including storefronts at
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's
Merchandise Mart The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with of floor space. The Art Deco structure is locate ...
and on
Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
in New York. Blue Ridge dishes were also featured in ads by
Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
and
Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Precursor miller companies In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...
. The outbreak of World War II halted the flow of imported pottery, and U.S. potteries drastically expanded to meet the sudden spike in demand. By the late-1940s, Southern Potteries employed over 1,000 workers and produced 324,000 hand-painted pieces per week, making it the largest hand-painted pottery in the United States. Imports returned in the early 1950s, however, and the rising popularity of plastic dinnerware began to take a toll on Southern Pottery's profits. The plant initially dropped employees' hours to half-time to avoid layoffs, but by 1956 had slashed its workforce to 600. In January 1957, the stockholders of Southern Potteries voted to close the plant and liquidate its assets. The plant was sold to a casket company, and the company's molds were sold to regional potters, most notably the Cash Family's Clinchfield Artware, and to Negatha Peterson, operating as Erwin Pottery. "Blueridge Pottery Stories" 2010 Erwin National Blueridge Pottery Club


Manufacturing process

The Southern Potteries plant in Erwin covered , and consisted of a moulding department for flatware, a
casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
department, a finishing department, a stamping department, a decorating shop, and a shipping department. The process of creating Blue Ridge pieces began with the mixing of feldspar, talc, clay, flint, and water in a mixing machine to make a
slip Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...
. The slip was then pumped into a filter press, creating a press cake. The press cake was remixed and formed into columns in diameter, which was in turn divided into lengths.Newbound and Newbound, pp. 11-14. Some of these lengths were jiggered for flatware, and then sent to the potters for shaping. Others were cast for holloware (e.g. bowls, cups, pitchers), wherein the slip was poured into a
plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
of Paris mold for shaping, fired in a pusher kiln, and sent to the finishing department for stamping, decorating, and glazing. Hand painting was usually done freehand. In later years, a faint outline was rubber-stamped onto the piece as a "coloring book style" guide. The painters usually consisted of a team of three or four who applied the pattern with brushes, sponges or rollers before glazing the ware and subjecting it to a second firing. The final products were shipped in wooden barrels which were made on site by the shipping department. Straw packing was obtained from local farms. The most current pictorial guide to these pieces was published by John and Frances Ruffin in 2012, and includes pictures of some very collectible "lunch-time" pieces. These are pottery items, usually one-of-a-kind that were produced by employees on a very casual basis. The art quality varies from very basic to quite sophisticated.


Collecting

Although the plant closed in 1957, Blue Ridge dishware remained a popular collectors' item throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Blue Ridge Collectors Club was formed in Erwin, and began documenting the 4,000 or so patterns used by Southern Potteries over the years. The pottery plant did not produce open stock, but only made pieces to order. Patterns were numbered and some patterns were exclusive, for example Sears, and Quaker Oats. Pattern names were given to pieces as the newly re-discovered patterns were documented in the two major guide books, Ruffin and Newbound. The plant would gladly accept small orders, perhaps for as few as two dozen pieces. The Erwin Kiwanis club had special plates made for one Christmas dinner. The china pieces, stamped with "Blue Ridge Handpainted Underglaze" or a similar variation, are the most popular items among Blue Ridge collectors. Pieces with patterns showing people, animals, or farm scenes are also popular (most pieces show floral patterns). After lunch-time pieces, the rarest Blue Ridge pieces are limited edition artist-signed pieces, among them the "turkey hen" and "turkey gobbler"
platters The Platters was an American vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound bridges the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new burgeoning genre. The ac ...
and the Paul Revere character jug. One of the most well-known Blue Ridge artists was chief designer and Erwin native Lena Watts. Other Southern Potteries artists who are known to have signed Blue Ridge pieces include Mae Garland, Frances Kyker, Ruby Hart, Nelsene Calhoun, Mildred Broyles, Alleene Miller, Louise Guinn, and Mildred Banner.Newbound and Newbound, p. 125.


References


External links

{{Commons category, Blue Ridge dishware
Blue Ridge Collectors Site
Appalachian culture Unicoi County, Tennessee Ceramics manufacturers of the United States American pottery