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Westerwald Pottery 40 Pottery Lane, Scenery Hill, PA 15360 Phone: 724-945-6000 FAX: 724-945-5139
Monday-Friday 8:30 AM to 5 PM Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday 12 PM to 5 PM
-NEW FOR CHRISTMAS 2007- SEE OUR NEW POINSETTIA JAR - CLICK HERE.
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Visit our Showroom and Factory
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****** Stoneware vessels were first made in Pennsylvania c. 1720 and similar wares were still being fabricated by commonwealth potters two hundred years later. The "golden age" of Pennsylvania stoneware however was a 50-year span (1840-1890). In this period several hundred factories produced millions of handy salt-glazed jugs, pans, butter crocks, canning jars, and pitchers. When demand necessitated claysmiths also made chicken waterers, spittoons, churns, chamber pots, and batter pails. Such bread and butter pieces sustained the stoneware maker but a talented potter also knew how to fashion banks, doll heads, grease lamps, cake molds, grave markers, string holders, and meat tenderizers. Schaltenbrand's book, which took 15 years to research and write, documents 300 large and small stoneware operations which flourished in 43 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. Throughout his oeuvre the author celebrates the skilled potter (many named and some pictured) who was the last of an American breed. No other American industry relied on hand-craftsmen at such a late period. A good potter could turn as many as four hundred vessels in a busy day. Such individuals continued to earn good wages in parts of Pennsylvania into the 1890s. In Big Ware Turners Schaltenbrand has tried to offer information for scholars, historians, and collectors. At the same time the author has represented the human side of Pennsylvania stoneware manufacture. In a series of strategically positioned sidebars Schaltenbrand touches on the role of women in the state's potteries, the impact of the Civil War on stoneware manufacture, and the ways in which potteries coped with fire and flooding, their arch nemeses. Unlike the stoneware of New York State and New England, that is stylistically homogeneous, Pennsylvania's salt-glazed stoneware is quite diverse, a situation best explained by geographical variety and an influx of German potters, especially in the central districts of the Commonwealth. A wide range of decorative techniques and styles prevent convenient classification of stoneware made in Pennsylvania. The state's stoneware is distinctive however because of it's diversity. Many representative pieces are presented in color throughout this book. The reader of Big Ware Turners should find interesting the maps, drawings, period advertisements, and old documents that accent the text. Insight and enjoyment can be gained by reading the interview with Larry Rumble, one of Pennsylvania's last folk potters.
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Home About Us About the Founder Big Ware Turners Westerwald Products Page How To Order Request a Catalog Visit our Showroom and Factory Copyright © 2005
Westerwald Pottery
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Big Ware Turners can be ordered by calling the above number or mailing a
check made payable to Phil Schaltenbrand, P.O. 72, Bentleyville, PA 15314.
Paperback copies are $35.00, Hardback copies are $55.00. Shipping is $3.00
(please include 6% sales tax in Pennsylvania).