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Pitchford, and he saw the advertisement in the paper and wrote to the
company at Albany, New York, for particulars. And they furnished
him the particulars, and from that address, why, we was all ordering
Albany Slip glaze. And that was in 1896-97, along in there. And then
diere was another pottery shop over here, Mr. Dorsey, and he got to
using it, too.
Both accounts clearly point to the fact that Albany Slip was rapidly
disseminated throughout die region widiin a short time of its arrival.
It seems, in fact, that nearly all of the local potters were experimenting
with me new glaze, ordering large barrels of the material
from the M.V.B. Wagoner Company at Albany, New York. Enthusiastic
proponents of Albany Slip included members of the Pitchford
family, Daddy Bill Dorsey (probably the Dorsey cited by Q.
Meaders), plus Little Bill Dorsey and his brother, Bob. Tarp and
Williams Dorsey, apparently resisted using the patent glaze until
around 1920, and then used it only as an adjunct to their lime and
flint glazes. According to Williams's son, Guy:
It had been used a long time before we ever commenced it. They
learned over there at our place that they could sell it about as well and
burn it hard with a whole lot less work [than the older glazes]. You
handle one of those old-time glazing mills all day long and it's pretty
bad on you. [So] we got to ordering that Albany Slip. It come in big
barrels, and you take and go to soaking it, and the first thing you know,
it'd just work up and be plumb fine. It didn't need no grinding, and it
made a pretty jar, too.
For their part, the Meaderses saw both advantages and disadvantages
in using Albany Slip. In support of the patent glaze, Q\ offered,
"All you had to do was just wet it up and get it the same consistency
that we wanted and dip ware in it —or baptize it, as the Baptists call
it — always enough would stick on the ware to glaze it."
Cheever, on the odier hand, had serious reservations. A common
complaint was that Albany Slip was not as reliable as the alkaline
glazes in sealing fissures (blow-out holes) and odier imperfections
during firing: "We'd stay with that old glaze because we'd work a clay
mat had some grit in it and little particles of wood and die like of diat.
Well, if you use that ash glaze on it, it'll run and fill them places up.
But the Albany Slip wouldn't do that. You've got to have a clay that's
got nothing in it to put that Albany Slip on; if you don't, your pott'ry
will leak." Moreover, Cheever found diat the patent glaze tended to
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