Bottles and ExtrasWinter 200452

In May of 2003, CBS raised a ruckusby announcing a new "reality"program tobe called "The Real Beverly Hillbillies"in which a multi-generational mountainfamily would be relocated to the poshCalifornia town and furnished with$500,000, high fashion clothing, Jaguarsand personal assistants. Then thecameras would roll on the real-live anticsof these rural folks.

The concept was immediately androundly denounced from many quarters.Among the most outspoken was GeorgiaSenator Zell Miller who denounced the

idea as a "hillbilly minstrel show." Miller,who regularly denounced the notion ofhillbilly, has said: "...One of the greatestironies of history is that while thecowboy, another kind of frontiersman, hasbeen glorified, the mountaineer, the firstfrontiersman, has been ridiculed andcaricatured in the image of Snuffy Smith."The show was shelved.

Senator Miller may have a point. TheAmerican Dialect Dictionary defines"hillbilly" as "an uncouth countryman,especially from the hills." The term firstwas coined about 1900 in the vicinity of

Arkansas. Its use subsequently spreadthroughout the South and becameespecially common in Kentucky and WestVirginia. The New York Evening Journalof April 2, 1900, using a variant spellingsaid, "In short, a Hill-Billie is a free anduntrammeled white citizen...who lives inthe hills, has no means to speak of, dressesas he can, talks as he pleases (and) drinkswhiskey when he gets it...."

Unlike the Senator, however, somemountain people still revel in the nameand the image. In certain locales it evenqualifies as a term of endearment. "I don't

THE HILLBILLY AND THE JUGby Jack Sullivan

1 2 3

4 5

Bottles and Extras Winter 2004 53

mind if you call me a hillbilly," TimWhite, a Bristol TN country music DJ andbanjo player, told a reporter. "Just don'tcall me a dumb hillbilly."

The hillbilly, for good or ill, has an ageold identification with jugs. This is anobvious allusion to the illicit whiskey thatis distilled in "them thar hills." As aresult, the hillbilly frequently has beendepicted on ceramic jugs that purport tohold strong drink, but actually aresouvenirs. Some identify themselves asholding "moonshine," "home brew" or"mountain dew," terms often used inconnection with illegal whiskey-makingin the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains.Such items usually contain illustrations ofmountain folks, bearing familiar hillbillythemes and stereotypes:

* The men are inevitably heavilybearded, in ragged clothing, with a gunand/or a jug of whiskey at hand and oftena dog at their side;

* The women are puffing on pipesand raising great clouds of smoke; and

* Everybody seems to be barefoot andwearing odd-looking hats.

Hillbilly souvenir jugs most often arewithout any identification about theirorigins. But some can be traced to theirmakers, either by marks or other charac-teristics. Research has identified threesuch firms whose products frequently areseen at bottle shows and on eBay: TheCash Family Pottery of Tennessee;Paden City Artcraft of West Virginia; andParkcraft/Taneycomo of Iowa and

Missouri.

THE CASH FAMILYErwin is a town of about 5,000 in south-

eastern Tennessee, on Interstate 181 justabove the North Carolina line. In 1910,E.J. "Ted" Owen started a pottery thereafter several years working in the ceramictrade in Ohio and West Virginia. Owenfirst called his company ClinchfieldPottery, later changing it to SouthernPotteries. But he found it difficult to hireexperienced potters and the boys from thesurrounding hills proved hard to train.Production faltered and bankruptcy wasin prospect.

Just when things looked darkest in1922, a seasoned potter from Ohio namedCharles Foreman took over the operationsand made them profitable. As a first stephe began hiring women for the pottery,training them to paint by hand on bisquestoneware which was then fired. Whilemost of the painting was done following apattern or formula, as the womenprogressed, they were encouraged to usetheir own artistic imaginations.

The skill of these mountain womenwere the key to Foreman's success.Because of the low cost of their skilledlabor and the potter's ability to changepatterns easily, Southern Potteries, underits own name and "Blue Ridge Pottery,"succeeded in establishing a market forcheap dinnerware as theater premiums andfor chains like Sears and MontgomeryWard. The firm prospered until the early1950s when Charles Foreman died.

Enter the Cash Family. In the midst of

the Great Depression, about 1935 Ray andPauline Cash opened a roadside potterystand on Highway 25, three miles northof Knoxville. It started as a rickety tarp-covered stall but the Cashes were ablemerchants and the business grew, first toa closed wooden structure and later to abrick building. They called it the"Cash Pottery Stand" and adopted theslogan, "Everybody Buys Here," with alogo of silhouettes streaming into abuilding. Prominent among theirmerchandise were Southern and BlueRidge Pottery items.

About 1945, Ray and Pauline foundedtheir own ceramics business in Erwin theycalled Clinchfield Pottery, a problematicchoice since even today it causesconfusion with the earlier Ted Owenspottery of the same name. WhenForeman's Southern Pottery liquidated in1957. The couple purchased its molds andtook on many of its skilled women. Theycontinued the tradition of painted stone-ware, becoming known for decorativehousehold ceramic items of all kinds.Eventually they renamed their operationthe Cash Family Pottery -- by which it isbest known today.

Among their products were a line ofsouvenir jugs with hillbilly or whiskeymotifs. They carry the predictable motifsof mountain people, including bare feet,beards, funny hats, jugs marked withxxx's. All were souvenir shop specialties,meant to be taken home to Aunt Gert andUncle Bart as proof of a visit to the GreatSmoky Mountains or other southernlocales. Most bear the Cash Family

16 7 8

Bottles and ExtrasWinter 200454

Pottery mark prominently and oftenindicate that the jug has been"hand painted."

While most of these items are standard-ized occasionally the artistic ability of thedecorator is evident, as shown in #1. Thefigure of a mountain man whittling on astick is similar to #2 but is done in a freehand format that gives it a individualizedfeeling.

Moreover, among Cash Family jugs isa real whiskey container. Holding JackDaniels Tennessee Whiskey, the jugapparently was commissioned by theHoover Ball and Bearing Company, aMichigan firm with a factory in Erwin.It probably was meant as a holiday gift toclients and employees. Using its standard"fifth" size jug, the Cash Family obligedthe roller bearing company with a whitestoneware container with a black and bluelabel (#6). The misspelled "Tennisee (withan "n" reversed for effect) apparently wasto be part of its country-style allure. It isone of the more interesting post-Prohibition whiskey jugs to be found.

After more than 50 years in business,the Cash Family pottery operation closedabout 1989, in part the victim of cheaperforeign ceramic imports. Today itsproducts are considered highly collectible.In 2000 the first reference publicationappeared. Written by Allison Burnette, itis entitled "Collectors Guide to CashFamily Pottery/Clinchfield Artware" andcontains photos of most of the pottery'shillbilly souvenirs.

PADEN CITY ARTWAREHardly a flea market or bottle show goes

by without a small ceramic jug showingup with the label "Mountain Dew" or"Pure Corn." Many bear a P.C. A. markon the bottom. The initials are those ofPaden City Artware, a West Virginiapottery operation. The firm was inbusiness for about 45 years and producedassorted specialty stoneware itemsincluding ashtrays, bells, vases, pitchersand - above all - jugs.

Although some advertised themselvesas containers of mountain-made liquor,they actually held nothing more intoxicat-ing than air. They frequently bear thenames of resort towns that often were farfrom the mountains. Aimed at the touristtrade, these minis, half-pints, and pintswere meant for souvenirs or gifts to thefolks back home. Most P.C.A. jugs areheavy stoneware with cream bodies andbrown or green tops. Their specialdistinction is gold lettering and othergilded decoration. Some boast on the base:"Hand Decorated - 22 K Gold." All -though empty - were corked.

The pottery was located in Paden City,a town of about 3,000 on the east side ofthe Ohio River and up river from Marietta,Ohio. It was founded in 1940 and ownedby William Ford and Lyle Mitchell. Atfirst they called the company "F and MArtware," using their initials, but in 1956changed its name to Paden City Artware.The change may have been motivated bycommercial advantage. There already wasa Paden City Pottery, founded in 1914 atnearby Sisterville, West Virginia. Thatfirm was a successful producer of highquality dinnerware and enjoyed a nationalreputation as a brand sold through Searsstores. Undoubtedly some confusionresulted from two potteries with PadenCity in their name. But that may havebeen what Mssrs. Ford and Mitchell hadin mind.

Whatever the rationale, under its newname P.C.A. appears to have beensuccessful for almost three decades.(It outlived Paden City Pottery by some22 years.) A handicraft shop with onlyabout 15 employees, the firm producedgood quality, if simply designed, stone-ware. P.C.A.'s market was an expandingone during the boom years of tourism thatfollowed the end of World War II and theopening of the Interstate Highway System.As the American people visited newplaces, they wanted memorabilia. TheWest Virginia firm was ready to oblige.

P.C.A. jugs shown here are from resorttowns located nowhere near theAppalachian and Ozark Mountains thatadded "mountain dew" and "cornwhiskey" to our national vocabulary. Infact, many were from towns on theseacoast where a hillbilly was as unlikelyas a rock slide. Nevertheless, the identi-fication of souvenir jugs with hillbilly"likker" apparently helped sales regard-less of the point of origin. The common

denominator among all these P.C.A. itemsis a place name, often in script and alwaysin bright gold.

Whether the cause was cheaper foreignimports or the increasing sophisticationof the touring public, P.C.A.'s stonewarejugs and other souvenirs eventually lostfavor. The firm closed its doors about1985. Nothing more will ever be addedto its product line. Yet because of themodernity of its products, P.C.A. itemsoften can be purchased at flea markets andantique malls for just a couple of dollars.

PARKCRAFT & TANEYCOMOParkcraft was another family affair, one

among several product names used by theAhrold Family of Burlington, Iowa, forspecialty ceramics they produced at theirown facilities or commissioned from other

9 10

11

Bottles and Extras Winter 2004 55

potteries.Today Parkcraft is known particularly

for its salt-and-pepper shakers. Theirceramic sets commemorated days of theweek, months of the year, famous cities,and other topics. The firm is perhaps bestknown for its state series of S&Ps in whichthe salt shaker was fashioned in the shapeof the state itself and the pepper was anobject reminiscent of the character of thestate, e.g. Kentucky has a small whiskeyjug pepper shaker.

The Parkcraft also merchandised hill-billy jugs of a wide range of sizes fromhalf-pints to quarts. In correspondence tome, Bob and Marianne Ahrold, nowretired and living in Florida, haveindicated that although the jugs are widelycredited to their firm, Parkcraft did themarketing only and the production was the

work of Taneycomo Pottery of Hollister,Mo., a town not far from the Bransonmusic center. The proprietor of thiscompany was Sam Weaver.

Like the Cash Family, Weaver reliedon, as the Arholds put it, "deft-fingeredOzarks ladies" for hand-painting the facesand figures of mountain folk. They usedfree-hand techniques that give each jugsome individuality. Parkcraft/Taneycomosold these items to whole-salers, gift andsouvenir shops and through ads in news-papers and specialty publications to col-lectors and the general public.

Unlike items from the Cash Family andP.C.A., Parkcraft/Taneycomo jugs almostnever have pottery marks. However, theycan be readily recognized by their distinctdusky rose color and the character of thedrawing. A few carry a mark on the basethat says "Parkcraft...Burlington,Iowa...around a "C" in a circle. Parkcraftwas in business from 1949 to 1965.

These three firms were among anumber of outfits that produced hillbillyjugs for the tourist trade during thedecades 1940-1970. Hillbilly items arestill on sale at places like MountainVillage - 1890 at Bull Shoals, Arkansas,but those ceramics are made in Asia. Theylack an authenticity I find in theAmerican-made jugs described above.After all, the jugs shown here werefashioned and painted by real people fromthe hills. These ceramics may becharacterized by some as "SouthernTacky," but, nonetheless, they aregenuine Americana.

Material for this article came from anumber of sources, among the mostimportant being Lois Lehner's ENCY-CLOPEDIA OF U.S. MARKS ON POT-TERY, PORCELAIN & CLAY (CollectorBooks, 1988).

Photos:1. A typical Cash Family quart hill-

billy jug.2. A similar Cash Family hillbilly,

butdone in a free-hand style.3. This female mountain woman

appears on a quart-sized jug fromParkcraft/Taneycomo.

4. A lineup of three Parkcraft/Taneycomo pipe-smoking hillbillysouvenirs.

5. A male counterpart from Parkcraft/Taneycomo.

6. This half-pint sized Cash Familyjug featured a multi-colored mountain

man.7. (Front side) This "Tennisee Sip'n

Likker" jug actually held real whiskey.8. (Back side) The familiar Jack

Daniels label on a speciality item madefor the Hoover Ball Company.

9. One of several pottery marks usedby the Cash Family on its ceramic items.

10. A round Cash Family half-pint jugof pretend "Tenn. Moonshine."

11. A PCA "Pure Corn" jug from CapeCod, Mass.

12. PCA -made "Pure Corn" souvenirof Rehobeth Beach, Delaware.

13. Mini-jug from PCA advertising"Mountain Dew" from coastalWilliamsburg Va.

12

13

Full ColourBBRest. 1979

The world’s first fullcolor bottle magazinesimply got BETTER

and BIGGERPACKED FULL

of all the informationyou need on the UK &

worldwide sceneWell-researched articles

All the latest findsUpcoming sales

Full show calendar

“the classified ads alone make a subscriptionworthwhile, but the color pictures make it absolutely

ESSENTIAL. Heck, what is $20?”

1 year Air Mail subscriptionstill just $20 - 2 years $40

BBR, Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley,2, Yorkshire, S74 8HJ, England

Tel: 011-44-1226-745156; Fax: 011-44-1226-361561

Personal Check, MasterCard/Visa, even $ bills!

Canadian Bottle andStoneware CollectorCanada’s quarterly bottle magazine

Now in our 8th Volume year!1 year subscription costs $40 US

CB and SC102 Abbeyhill Drive

Kanata, Ontario, CanadaK2L 1H2

Check out our Web site:www.cbandsc.comSubscribe online!

Bitters to ginger beers and everything in between!

E-mail: Info@cbandsc.com