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Learn More...Communicating in Clay
A new exhibit of Anna Pottery, Communicating in Clay: The
Ellis Collection of Anna Pottery, is on view at Lakeview
Museum of Arts & Sciences in Peoria, Illinois from April 21
through November 11, 2007. This exhibit features highlights
from the largest private collection of the unique nineteenth
century pottery wares of the Kirkpatrick brothers, Cornwall
and Wallace.
Long before the days of cell phones, emails and electronic
media, people living in the late 19th century found other
means to communicate. The Kirkpatrick brothers of Anna,
Illinois utilized clay. They fashioned wares that freely
advertised their strong opinions on such wide-ranging topics
as politics, corrupt tax revenuers and the temperance
movement. Cornwall (1814-1890) and Wallace (1828-1896) are
now known as two of the finest potters in the country and
their wares are found in collections ranging from tavern
owners to the Smithsonian Institution.
The Kirkpatrick brothers learned their trade at an early age
from their father, Andrew Kirkpatrick, a potter in Urbana,
Ohio. Cornwall was the first to leave, seeking his fortune
in Cincinnati, Ohio, Covington, Kentucky and Mound City,
Illinois. In search of work and a good clay vein, he
eventually joined Wallace in Mound City, Illinois. Wallace
had been in Illinois since 1837, when Andrew had moved with
his family to take over a pottery begun by another son, John
(1812-?). In 1858 they moved south to a new unincorporated
area of Illinois known as Anna. The rich, creamy-yellow
kaolin clay found there provided a perfect medium for their
wares. Another benefit was the town’s strategic location
alongside the Illinois Central Rail Road (I.C.R.R.), which
provided the necessary transportation to ship their
utilitarian pottery of crocks, churns and garden wares,
which constituted the staples of their business. They
quickly opened a pottery, known as Anna Pottery.
However, Cornwall and Wallace were not content to merely
throw clay into simple utilitarian wares. They also produced
fantastical items, most of which still usually filled a
practical function. These items included frog inkwells, mugs
hiding unsavory surprises at their bottoms, pig flasks and
snake jugs. All of them sport examples of Nature at her
slimiest and most base. The Kirkpatricks gave or sold these
items to politicians, liquor manufacturers, tavern owners
and fairgoers throughout the country.
Some items were intended as raunchy pranks, as in the case
of the mugs. Others go beyond mere humorous repulsion to
provide a doorway to understanding the political, economic
and social life of Illinois in the late 19th century. The
Kirkpatricks felt compelled to bluntly present their
personal opinions in their clay wares. Two of their most
noted examples can be found today in the collection of the
Smithsonian Institution. The Kirkpatrick brothers presented
the Smithsonian with two snake jugs during the 1876
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition expressing their feelings
of corrupt tax revenuers.
The well-known pig flasks also provided an avenue for the
brothers to assert their unabashed views of cities
throughout the country. These “Latest and Greatest Railroad
and River Guides” sport railroad routes incised across their
bodies. The brothers took geographic license in
strategically placing cities along the routes to reveal
their own personal and political views of those communities.
Well-liked cities were placed in prominent locations such as
the shoulder or back, whereas less admired cities found
themselves relegated to the pig’s posterior.
Local communities were not immune from the Kirkpatricks’
caustic humor. In 1872, Cornwall was elected the first mayor
of Anna. He won the election with the support of the local
Horace Greeley Club. Greeley (1811-1872) was the founder and
editor of the New York Tribune. He became a nationally known
political figure with ultra-conservative views. After the
mayoral election, Cornwall presented the local Greeley Club
with a brown pig flask incised with a cartoon figure of
Horace Greeley. This figure sports a large brimmed hat on
which a trigger paddle reads “Presidency.” The message reads
“Who ever says/this is a trap/is a liar.” Unsure of
Cornwall’s meaning, the local club decided to accept it as a
gesture of thanks, only to discover later that Cornwall had
no intention of upholding the club’s political agenda.
In May of 1871 the Kirkpatricks presented the Governor of
Illinois, John M. Palmer, with a protest pig claiming the
state capitol should be moved from Springfield to Peoria.
Prior to firing the pig, Cornwall must have experienced a
change of heart about including the governor’s name on the
pig, for a smudge on the pig reveals he rubbed out the
governor’s name with his finger. This large brown Albany
slip pig is the only one known to take on the shape of a
razorback hog. It is obvious from the inscription that the
brothers were unhappy with current politics. It reads, “ The
next legislature of the State of Illinois meet at the City
of Chicago in a hogs _____,” and points to the hog’s
backside. The Kirkpatricks not only lobbied to move the
state’s capitol to Peoria, but also hoped that St. Louis
would become the nation’s capitol.
The Kirkpatricks’ views of the temperance controversy appear
simultaneously frank and yet strangely unclear to modern
viewers, for champions of both sides of the issue cited
their clay whimsies. The temperance movement was one of the
strongest social reform movements of the nineteenth century.
Traditional scholarship refers to the pig flasks and snake
jugs as evidence of the Kirkpatricks’ support of the
movement. In the case of the pig flasks, the only way to
imbibe the flask’s “evil” contents was to drink from the
hog’s backside. The flask often sported the statement “Good
‘ol Rye in a hogs ____” with an arrow pointing to the hog’s
posterior.
Similarly, the snake jugs practically seethe with snakes and
intemperate men (and an occasional woman) in various degrees
of debauchery. One might view these jugs as moralizing tales
where writhing snakes attack drunkards in justified
retribution.
Perhaps one of the finest examples of these snake jugs is
named “Drunkard’s Doom.” This large salt-glazed snake jug
measures approximately 10” in height and 8” width. It was
made in the mid-1870s and depicts a man diving into the jug
with a statement that reads “Nice Young Man Going In.” On
the opposite side a disheveled frightful face of a man
appears with snakes biting at his head. The statement on
this side reads “Drunkard’s Doom.” Three rail cars appear
along a snake’s back on the side. A civilized-looking man
sits at the top, but as the rail cars approach the snake’s
head, the man takes on a frightening appearance, one that is
monstrous and almost unrecognizable. Surely, one must have
had this type of experience to be able to express himself so
well.
However, other scholars cite these same wares as proof that
Cornwall and Wallace not only rejected the temperance
movement but actively fought against it. The fact that many
of the Kirkpatricks’ best customers were tavern owners and
distilling companies does raise doubts that the brothers
should wish to bite that hands that fed them.
A single snake flask labeled “High Water” may provide an
insight into the brothers’ views of their status as potters.
Incised on the bottom of this flask is “High Water /
February 23, 1884.” One shoulder reads “the little brown
jug” but the more commonly found “beware” on the opposite
side is replaced with “At last it biteth like a serpent, no
handy craft can with our art compare we make our pots of
what we Potters are.”
This statement bears similarities to a favorite Bible verse
of the temperance movement “At last it biteth/like a
serpent” (Proverbs 23:32). As mentioned above, it is
difficult to tell which side of the temperance movement the
brothers were on. With politics being very dear to them
perhaps they were on both sides depending on the situation.
The Kirkpatricks were unafraid to expound on political
events on a national level as well. The presidential
election of 1876 exhibited nearly the same set of
controversial results between candidates Rutherford B. Hayes
and Samuel Tilden as the 2000 election between George Bush
and Al Gore. Democratic candidate Tilden won the popular
vote by a margin of 250,000 ballots. However, Republican
candidate Rutherford B. Hayes challenged the election
results in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. He then
won the electoral votes of these three states and won the
Electoral College by one vote. A High Joint Commission
eventually affirmed Hayes’ win by a voting margin of eight
to seven. The Kirkpatricks commemorated the event with a
snake jug made of salt glaze and dabs of Albany slip
displaying 15 snakes and the incised message “High Joint
Commission” and slash marks showing the 8 to 7 vote. This
piece is in the collection of the Illinois State Museum.
No discussion of Anna pottery would be complete without
mention of the fair jugs. Fairs were the most important
social and cultural events of the fall season in southern
Illinois. The Kirkpatricks commemorated these celebrations
with large jugs incised all over in a tremendous horror
vacuii. The brothers produced these fair jugs from 1873
until 1889, only missing the 1888 fair due to Cornwall’s
poor health (he was 74 years old by then). Six fair jugs are
known to still exist, all made of salt glazed stoneware.
They are incised with cobalt blue writing identifying the
fair committee members and the winners of each division.
Their importance today cannot be overestimated, for they
provide snapshots of the communities’ political and commerce
scenes, usually listing the mayor, council members, police
commissioner and even members of certain civic
organizations.
To find out more about Anna Pottery we suggest the book
Pottery, Politics, Art by Richard D. Mohr; for more visuals,
see www.annapottery.com.
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences located in Peoria,
Illinois is well known for its Illinois folk art exhibits.
For more information please contact Lakeview Museum at
309-686-7000 or visit their website at
www.lakeview-museum.org.
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