A little about Edgefield Pottery

Edgefield Pottery was begun in the early 1800s by Abner Landrum in an experiment to find a way to supplant the need to import stoneware from the North or from Europe. In South Carolina, as well as the rest of the South, the large plantations also needed much larger storage vessels than the average farmer outside the South. At that time it was also becoming evident that lead glazed stoneware in use up to that period was leaching lead into food which causing illness and death. In the North, pottery makers were already using salt glazes but in the South salt was too expensive.

Abner Landrum somehow theorized that alkaline glazes like the ones Chinese had invented many years earlier may be the answer to this problem. With alkaline glazes, Landrum knew he already had all the ingredients needed nearby. He began experimenting and soon Edgefield style pottery was born. It was such a success that by the mid 19th century Edgefield was home too several plantation-based potteries. These potteries even began competing with one another and many of the resulting wares were becoming works of art made by expert craftsman that were decorated with beautiful motifs and flourishes. Add to this the fact that slaves were also used in the potteries and that their involvement undoubtedly influenced the result. From Edgefield you have the first examples of African-American folk art like Edgefield face jugs.

Because of its popularity and usefulness, making alkaline glazed pottery spread outside of South Carolina to Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and even as far as Texas. Potters learning the trade in Edgefield then moved west into the "frontier" South. This includes places like Washington County Georgia, Crawford County Georgia, Catawba Valley North Carolina, Sand Mountain Alabama and many more. All of these places have great examples of alkaline glazed pottery with their own distinctive traditions.

After the Civil War the plantation potteries in South Carolina were gone and soon after that alkaline glazed pottery manufacturing in Edgefield vanished all together. The alkaline pottery traditions still existed in other places though it too soon diminished as technology like glass and refrigeration replaced the need for the utilitarian pottery.

There is no other pottery in the country that is like the Southern Alkaline Glazed pottery of the 19th century. Southern pottery is distinctive from all other regions and it is very attractive to the eye as well as being rich with history.