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The following article appeared in WPA Press, Vol. 16, Spring 2003
A North Carolina Winter Respite The Knutzens, founding member of the Wisconsin Pottery Association, were determined to find fresh sources of pottery, or at least see some nice pieces, and, we can assume, were also looking for some sunshine and warm weather. By driving to North Carolina in February, they managed to find the pottery alright, and apparently all the snow that has been missing from Wisconsin this year! Here is their story. In February, hoping to break up the winter doldrums and find some snow, we decided to head for the Arts and Crafts Show held at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C. On the way we found many places to stop and shop in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. We also found a lot of snow since they were having near record snowfalls thru the middle of the country.
We finally found the small pottery which is now run by A.R.’s 74 year old daughter, Neolia, and his grandson, Kenneth George. They were delightful and spent several hours talking to us about our pot, A.R., the history of the pottery and their present operation. They told us that our pot was thrown by A.R. between 1941 and 1961 when the first of several fires destroyed the stamp used on our pot. They said it was one of the finest pieces of A.R.’s work they had seen and that it was worth more than we had paid. We thanked them for the information, bought several of their contemporary pieces and headed back to Asheville thru a driving rain. At the Arts and Crafts Show we were able to purchase another A.R.Cole large porch vase.
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North Carolina - A Winter Respite - Article from the WPA
Press, Vol. 16, Spring 2003
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We
had just been studying our new North Carolina Pottery book so we were hot on the
trail of some good N.C. pottery. Although we weren’t too knowledgeable about
what to look for we did stumble onto a very nice, large porch vase made by
A.R.Cole. We weren’t sure of its age or value and had many second thoughts after
we bought it that we had paid too much. So we headed for the A.R.Cole Pottery in
Sanford, N.C. to see if we could find out more about the vase and whether we had
made a mistake. To the right are some A.R. Cole vases purchased in North
Carolina. 
The
show had an amazing amount of both old and new arts and crafts era furniture,
textiles, paper and pottery items. Pottery such as Newcomb, Grueby, SEG, etc.
that we do not normally see and the prices were also out of sight. We saw the
Ephraim potters and Eric Olson, both had very nice displays of their wares and
said they had done well at the show. We also visited the North Carolina Pottery
Museum in Seagrove and the Pisgah Forest Pottery near Arden. We had a wonderful
trip and learned some more about the North Carolina pottery tradition. We also
saw more snow than Wisconsin had all winter! To the right is a A
Smithfield Rebecca jug.