Guadalupe Pottery Company
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MakerAttributed to Guadalupe Pottery CompanyAmerican, active c. 1857–1869

CultureAmerican

Titles

Datec. 1857–1869

Made inTexas, United States

MediumSalt-glazed stoneware

Dimensions8 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. diameter (22.2 × 13.3 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of William J. Hill

Object numberB.2012.82

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

CERAMICS

DescriptionNorth Carolina native John M. Wilson trained to be a lawyer and later became a Presbyterian minister and entrepreneur. In 1850, he moved his family and those whom he enslaved to Missouri. In the wake of the violence that arose in the region in the dispute over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state, Wilson moved in 1856 and settled in Seguin, Texas. By 1857, he established the Guadalupe Pottery, which was active until 1869. Most of the work was carried out by enslaved workers, some of whom later established the firm of H. Wilson & Company. They may have learned the trade while in North Carolina or from others trained in southern pottery traditions associated with the Edgefield District of South Carolina, which included the use of a partially subterranean groundhog kiln and alkaline or ash glazes.
Provenance[Jon St. Clair, Austin]; purchased by William J. Hill (1934–2018), Houston, date unknown; given to MFAH, 2012.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

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Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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