Alabama Folk Pottery (review)

T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 224 Alabama Folk Pottery. By Joey Brackner. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. xviii, 311 pp. $69.95. ISBN 0-8173-1509-8. Joey Brackner’s book can be summed up in one word: bountiful. But that would make for a very brief review and certainly falls short of expounding on its many informative aspects and abundant illustrations. It is more than bountiful; it is hefty. The oversized volume is designed so that the reader may lay open the book and devour its contents, page by page, picture by picture. Descriptors such as bounty or hefty apply as much to the size of the book as to its contents. The Alabama Folk Pottery volume is intended as a pleasurable savoring of the insightful details of the lives of potters and their wares as revealed through Brackner’s two decades of documentary research, oral histories, collections inspections, and (where available) archaeological studies. He begins with a generous acknowledgement for those who inspired him, sponsored him, and shared with him their passion for pottery as well as scholarly summaries. Following the introduction, the book is divided into two parts. Part one, “Alabama Folk Pottery,” comprised of three chapters , examines pottery wares by cultural traits, functionality, and stoneware manufacturing processes. Part two, “Pottery Regions of Alabama,” comprised of nine chapters, provides the reader a detailed tour of the six major regions of pottery manufacturing in the state, along with explanations of their genesis and decline. Chapter twelve assesses the state of Alabama pottery today and the possible continuity of the tradition. He concludes that, “ironically, appreciation of the beauty and significance of folk pottery grows each year as the number of shops diminishes” (p. 213). This is a poignant reminder of the significant contribution his research brings to the study and value of folk pottery in Alabama as well as the surrounding southern states. Some may define this tome as an art book solely based on the abundance of illustrations: nearly 260 black and white and color images of pots, people, and places are included. The well-developed index and the seventeen pages of endnotes, however, clearly distinguish it as a reference volume, useful for the serious researcher of folk pottery. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book is the robust checklist of potters, namely 661 (or forty-three pages worth), who turned and burned their wares in Alabama. The checklist provides the names and family of each potter, the period in which they operated, and where they worked. From J U L Y 2 0 0 7 225 this inventory of potters, ceramics scholars as well as genealogists can trace the common names of clay-clans through the region as they migrated south and west from neighboring states. Names such as Bachelder, Boggs, Browns, Cogburn, LeFever, Rushton, Stork, Ussery, and Vestal testify to the peripatetic practices of some pottery clans who migrated from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee seeking cheap land, suitable clays, plentiful fuel, and new markets of consumers. Brackner very aptly acknowledges that as potters migrated into Alabama from various places they adapted their traditions to meld with the fusion of technologies emerging in the newly opened hinterlands. His region-by-region description of the pottery industry in Alabama, beginning in the early 1800s, developing through the 1880’s and diminishing by the twentieth century, presents an insightful look at how and why pottery centers flourished or sputtered in response to various natural and cultural factors, primarily economic endeavors. He balances this broad perspective with in-depth dialogue of the potters through oral histories and interviews. Turn a page to look face-to-face with a potter’s soulful stare as he or she appears in a vintage photograph, at work or at pose, looking back at us with beaming pride, secret knowledge, or restless resilience. The human spirit of someone who makes pottery for a living is something to be appreciated and documented. Brackner gives a democratic description of Alabama potters, whether male or female, white or black, free or enslaved, by understanding the cultural parameters of the day...