Sanford’s rich potter history, from North State Pottery to the ‘Sanford Coles’ and beyond
North Carolina’s pottery tradition is celebrated by scholars and collectors alike, and a significant amount of this remarkable pottery was manufactured in Sanford.
The Cole family of potters is practically synonymous with North Carolina pottery, and the “Sanford Coles” — as Arthur Ray Cole and his family have come to be known — made substantial and lasting contributions to the North Carolina art pottery tradition.
North Carolina art pottery evolved from an older tradition, and many — even those from this area — may not realize that Sanford played a part in this older tradition as well. William Henry Hancock, whose wares were usually stamped WH Hancock, operated a large pottery shop in Jonesboro during the 1880s, when the naval stores industry was thriving in the region’s vast longleaf pine forests.
There was a great demand for jugs to supply the distilleries, in addition to the other traditional salt-glazed wares, and Hancock manufactured many thousands of jugs, pitchers and churns to satisfy the demand.
Artisans and craftsmen like Hancock in the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina were renowned for the quality and quantity of their handmade salt glazed utilitarian wares. They turned basic utilitarian forms such as jars, jugs, pitchers and crocks from clay dug on site or mined nearby and hauled in by the wagon-load. The forms took shape on a hand-built kick-wheel that was powered by the movement of the potters’ legs as they worked.
They fashioned their own bricks from native clay to build simple “groundhog” kilns, fired them with wood, and glazed their pots with a cheap and practical salt glaze, produced by pouring salt through openings in the roof of the kiln when the temperature was “just right.”
These traditional wares were in great demand throughout the region for food service, preservation and storage and for other practical purposes such as candlesticks, flowerpots and grave markers.
North State Pottery Company was founded in 1924 when Sanford resident Rebecca Palmer Cooper — so impressed by the pottery scene in nearby Seagrove — established her own shop and hired Jonah Owen as her first potter and designer. North State would enjoy 35 years of success, employing several highly accomplished potters along the way. Photo by Ben Brown
Demand for these wares declined in the early 1900s due to a variety of factors including Prohibition, the availability of glass jars for food preservation, mass production of molded factory wares and refrigeration. All of these factors conspired to reduce the demand for handmade utilitarian wares, and many of the old family potteries disappeared during this transitional era.
In the 1920s, a few of the old North Carolina pottery families — among them the Owens, Cravens, Aumans, Teagues and the Coles — began altering and updating the traditional forms and decorating them with colorful glazes and other decorations. Teapots and vases replaced churns and jugs, and tourists gradually replaced locals as the primary customers.
Capitalizing on this trend, Henry and Rebecca Cooper established North State Pottery in the mid-1920s along the Plank Road just west of Sanford.
William Henry Hancock, whose pottery was often stamped “WH HANCOCK” operated a large pottery shop in Jonesboro during the 1880s. There was a great demand of his jugs to supply the local distilleries at the time. Photo by Ben Brown
North State became a national sensation when Henry participated in the nation’s sesquicentennial celebration in Philadelphia by constructing a log cabin on site and filling it with hundreds of marvelous pieces of handmade pottery manufactured in Sanford.
In 1927, Maurice Sylvester Leverette established his Rainbow Pottery on the busy tourist route, U.S. 1 in Sanford. Leverette made regular trips to the Seagrove area to purchase the North Carolina art pottery he sold in his Sanford store, and a young potter named A.R. Cole quickly became his favorite supplier. Eventually tiring of the time-consuming and costly trips to Seagrove, Leverette convinced A.R. Cole to move his family to Sanford and become the sole manufacturer of the Rainbow Pottery wares.
In 1934, Cole made the move to Sanford and built his home and pottery shop on U.S. 1 north of Sanford, where the U.S. 1/N.C. 15-501 interchange is located today. By the late 1930s, Leverette had left the pottery business, and A.R. Cole gave his name to the pottery that would thrive here Sanford until his death in 1974.
Although he was highly skilled at making pottery on the wheel, Cole attained legendary status for his glazes.
He experimented with every color imaginable, and achieved glaze effects with his traditional methods that could not be duplicated by the large commercial pottery operations of the day.
From the book Southern Exposure: Long Journey Home | Folklife in the South in 1977:
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The move [to Sanford] was very carefully planned; many years later A.R. Cole recalled: “When I came down from Seagrove, I drove up and down this road from Wake Forest to Southern Pines looking for a good spot…. I knew they’d be building up Fort Bragg and all and that a lot of traffic would have to come by here.”
The decision to leave the Seagrove area … proved highly successful in terms of sales and reputation. In fact, in 1970 the Sanford Telephone Book featured A.R. on its cover, deeply engrossed in turning yet another piece of ware.
In 1972, he was forced by the State Highway Commission to move his shop about a mile down the road to make way for a new highway and interchange. He managed to rebuild the entire plant — even the large, upright kiln — almost exactly as it was, but the effort was enormous and probably contributed to his death just two years later.
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Over the years, many thousands of visitors came to know Sanford as the place where A.R. Cole made his pottery. Right up until the time of his death, customers camped outside his shop when news of a kiln opening arrived, and most of his wares would sell out in a single day.
Cole’s influence did not end with his death, however. A.R.’s daughters, Neolia and Celia, continued to successfully operate the business for several decades with A.R.’s great-grandson Kenneth George. Their talents and personalities enhanced the legendary status of Cole’s pottery, and many more happy customers were born.
A.R.’s son, General Foister Cole, assisted A.R. in the shop for many years before moving away for a career in industry. Upon retirement, he returned to Lee County and established G.F. Cole Pottery in Broadway with his wife Peggy, further cementing the Coles’ place as leaders in the contemporary North Carolina art pottery scene.
Another skilled Cole potter, Sandy Cole Brown, operated North Cole Pottery for many years with her husband Kevin Brown along Horner Boulevard, one of Sanford’s busiest thoroughfares. Sandy and Kevin continue to be leaders in the local arts community, and they still make and sell their wares in a local artist’s colony.
The late Richard Gilson, founder of the Seagrove Pottery Festival and former operator of the Olde Pottery Shoppe, was also the driving force behind the creation of the Sanford Pottery Festival, along with Don Hudson of D.K. Clay, in 2001. The festival drew thousands and highlighted potters all over the state for just over a decade before ending its run in 2012.
The festival returned in 2013 in the form of the Arts & Vine Festival, which combined pottery with other vendors, more live music and more food and wine options, but that festival was short lived, ending after a two-year run.
While Sanford is no longer home to a festival or large event celebrating pottery, the art still has a home here. For area residents and visitors alike, there is much to learn and celebrate in Sanford’s long and storied pottery tradition, and a significant foundation to build upon for the future.
Jimmy Randolph contributed to this story.
Good Article – way cool
Any recommendations for pottery? I’d like to have someone make a custom size/shape plant pot for me.