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105 more unusual pieces include horned "devil jugs" (jack-o-lantern-type jugs with perforated features allowing a candle to show through), twofaced Janus jugs, and comical wig stands. For the sake of diversity, the younger Meaders enjoys caricaturing real-life individuals, among them the famous (Field Marshall Montgomery) and the not so famous (a customer at the Cleveland laundromat). Since 1969 Lanier has signed the bottoms of most of his facejugs in script with the occasional addition of CLEVELAND, GEORGIA. Lest he be accused of taking his work too seriously, he rejoins, "People want something that is no good, something that they can't use up except to just sit around and look at it." As for his face jugs, "they have no earthly value at all." OTHER TRADITIONAL WARE Miscellaneous oddments made by the Meaders family and their neighbors in times past have included gallon bed-pans (slop jars) turned for the local hostelries; miniature versions of the standard jugs, crocks, and pitchers for children's play; and unglazed pipe bowls. Neighbor potter Guy Dorsey remembered sitting in front of his burning kiln as a youth, chunking the firebox, and leisurely fashioning pipes in a lead mold: "Then the next time I burnt, you could just fill a flower jar full of them, burn a peck of them at a time. Then you get one of these creek bank canes for a stem. Man, there's been many a pound of homemade tobacco burned in them." Guy also recalled rolling clay into balls and firing them for marbles: "You know, I used to think that if we could get ahold of a set of store-bought marbles, we'd fly!" Cheever Meaders also manufactured large numbers of red earthenware flowerpots, much like those in common use today. The unglazed pots were hauled to hardware stores in the larger towns and were a trade staple. Cheever continued through the 1940s to make this sort of ware, at one time selling most of his produce to a florist in Cleveland. NONTRADITIONAL WARE With die accretion of small changes in die regional economy and in people's lifeways, the Meaderses' market for traditional stoneware experienced a considerable decline. The end of subsistence farming
106 and the introduction of new labor-saving products and devices, like glass and tin containers, iceboxes, and electric refrigerators, all affected the pottery business. Still, Cheever Meaders persisted for as long as he was able in making "nothing but big churns and jugs and the like of that" in standardized shapes and sizes. The more anachronistic his work became, the more petulant he grew in reply to his critics (and well-wishers) who encouraged him to change. 10 Whemer through stubbornness or design, a traditional inventory of ware is still, more than a decade after Cheever's death, the basis of die Meaders operation. Almost no accommodation has been made for the commercially glazed, brightly colored gift-shop items which have become the mainstay of other surviving potteries in the South. Cheever did try to adjust to the requests of his customers for urn-like vases, bean pots, cookie jars, and other nontraditional forms during the difficult period from the late 1930s forward. But he preferred to turn churns, crocks, pitchers, and jugs, as does his son today. Lanier Meaders has certainly benefitted from a resurgence of requests for the older forms —albeit from unexpected sources. In 1972 he turned a full set of his older vessels for the Tullie Smith House Restoration in Atlanta. He also supplied the <strong>Smithsonian</strong> <strong>Institution</strong> in Washington, D.C, with a representative sampling of his wares. Other pieces he sells to folk-art collectors and to specialty shops in die larger southern cities, such as Asheville and Atlanta. In the past, Lanier has been tempted to increase his output of bird houses, vases, and other ephemera, admitting that many small pieces turn a larger profit than a few large ones: "Well, the. kind of stuff that brings in the most money is the kind of stuff it takes the smallest amount of clay to make. You take a churn: it's got enough clay in it to make ten or fifteen dollars' worth of small stuff." 11 But he adds quickly: "'Course there's a lot of junk stuff out there, these ornaments. Don't like to fool around with that, but I do do it." At the urging of friends, Lanier has increased his prices modesdy — from fifty cents a gallon for churns in 1967 to $1.25 a gallon for the same pieces in 1978, and from $2.00 to $10-15.00 for a face jug. (Most of the face jugs are subsequently resold by antique dealers for many times these prices.) Lanier claims he would like to withhold a large share of his output for two or three years, and only then release it for sale at a gready inflated price. But he probably will not, he adds somewhat cryptically, as "people done got ruined."
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CheeverMeaders, circa 1933. (Photo
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The publication of this monograph w
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Editor's Preface In 1978, the Smith
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when the pace of work and passage o
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Introduction This handmade pott'ry
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We made a commitment to document th
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E. Richard Sorenson seven months af
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pace. Thus, we arrived just as a ki
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them by pottery entrepreneurs. The
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ville to the lumber mill at Helen,
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well known to scholars, kindly prov
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The Meaders Family I remember very
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oad tunnel" kiln and a mule-drawn "
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Hall County, and several of the Whi
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crocks, cover them with a sheet, hi
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and the Meaderses. Around 1920, an
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to Arie and Cheever Meaders in litt
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Figure 6. Cheever Meaders and his c
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Joiirnal and Constitution mum i in
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Adanta and Asheville. Cheever's wor
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esiding in his parents' small cotta
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Work Processes Our approach to pott
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SHELVES o L WHEEL STORAGE TABLE WEb
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Figure 12. The pottery yard, 1967-6
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textured yellow clays in the other
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Figure 15. Lanier's electric mud mi
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^///M/M$zzzn ty/W'""/"PZa Figure 16
Page 55 and 56: Figure 17. Crib assembly, showing b
Page 57 and 58: vessels turned to the same height a
Page 59 and 60: Contouring tools. (Photos by Ralph
Page 61 and 62: Figures 21, 22, 23. Turning a six-g
Page 63 and 64: Figure 23a. Rejoining top and botto
Page 65 and 66: Metal pottery lifters. Figure 25a.
Page 67 and 68: would roll out short pieces of soft
Page 69 and 70: Like the Meaderses' treadle wheels,
Page 71 and 72: Figure 29. The bottom side of the u
Page 73 and 74: to handle the glazed ware very care
Page 75 and 76: the next (fig. 33). In general, the
Page 77 and 78: All of the traditional ware was pla
Page 79 and 80: from an earlier dollar-a-cord. As t
Page 81 and 82: squeeze the excess moisture out, an
Page 83 and 84: had been turned too thin for the cl
Page 85 and 86: while a prefired and hammered clay
Page 87 and 88: thin with a slight twist to one sid
Page 89 and 90: children would file out to the work
Page 91 and 92: with the previous night's whole mil
Page 93 and 94: Figure 39b. Bottom of the pitcher,
Page 95 and 96: Figure 40. A four-gallon churn comm
Page 97 and 98: 98 water and washed; then they were
Page 99 and 100: Figure 41. Three storage vessels: a
Page 101 and 102: 100 many as 300-400 stoneware fruit
Page 103 and 104: 102 large share of the potters' bus
Page 105: 104 form in White County is general
Page 109 and 110: 108 For her part, Arie Meaders has
Page 111 and 112: Glazes A characteristic, though unu
Page 113 and 114: 112 Ash Glaze At one time, ash glaz
Page 115 and 116: 114 with this glaze, purchasing pre
Page 117 and 118: 116 melt at a relatively low heat
Page 119 and 120: 118 burns to a light or dark green
Page 121 and 122: 120 Figure 44b. Lanier's kiln, 1979
Page 123 and 124: 122 Lanier's kiln, 1968. (Illustrat
Page 125 and 126: 124 REBUILDING A KILN Pointing to h
Page 127 and 128: 126 With the supports in place, the
Page 129 and 130: 128 are kinds of people out there I
Page 131 and 132: 130 Cheever Meaders (1887-1967), th
Page 133 and 134: 132 1979 Cleveland, January 13 Robe
Page 135 and 136: 134 DIGGING THE CLAY View of clay p
Page 137 and 138: 136 Cheever throws, centers, raises
Page 139 and 140: 138 Lanier removes churn from wheel
Page 141 and 142: 140 Lanier pounds glass bits in oil
Page 143 and 144: 142 He bricks up front and builds u
Page 145 and 146: Glossary Albany Slip: A riverine cl
Page 147 and 148: 146 is tied around die charm to sec
Page 149 and 150: 148 simply an accumulation of broke
Page 151 and 152: 150 To "shut down" die kiln: To cea
Page 153 and 154: Bibliography: Published Sources on
Page 155 and 156: Notes Preface NOTES 1. Byington, Ro
Page 157 and 158:
156 2. John Ramsay, American Potter
Page 159 and 160:
158 Chapter III: The Ware NOTES 1.
Page 161:
160 8. This technique is mentioned
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