Is Nemadji Pottery Calling You?

 

QUESTION: On a trip out West I traveled through southern Colorado. I stopped at an antique shop and saw a unique vase covered with swirls of what looked like colored paint. The dealer said the vase was an example of Nemadji pottery and that it had been made by Native Americans but wasn’t sure from what tribe. What can you tell me about my vase?

ANSWER: Nemadji pottery originated in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota and is touted to be Native American pottery. But there’s nothing Native American about it. In fact, some antiques dealers sell this pottery under the belief that it is Native American.

Nemadji pottery is unglazed rustic pottery with colorful swirled designs on the outside. No two piece look alike. They all have unique colors and come in a variety of forms. Reminiscent of ancient Indian pottery, it's not surprising the colorful swirl pots became one of America's hottest tourist collectibles.

Clayton James Dodge founded the Nemadji Tile and Pottery Company in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1923 to make Arts and Crafts ceramic tiles. He shipped its trademark "fire flash" earthenware tile made from regional clays by railroad to destinations across the country. During its peak years, the demand was so strong a crew of 30 men worked three shifts to produce the colorful tile for homes and churches. But the Stock Market Crash of 1929 put an end to sales.

Determined to ride out the Great Depression, Dodge developed an inexpensive tourist pottery that could be mass-produced and shipped from his Moose Lake factory. But to create it, he needed to find a master ceramist. That person was Eric Hellman, a Danish immigrant who had earned a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering at the Technical Engineering Institute in Copenhagen. Hellman had previously worked at porcelain houses in Copenhagen and Meissen, Germany. But by the time he met Dodge, he had given up throwing pots for fear the clay dust would destroy his lungs. The promise of steady work and a paycheck changed that.

Within the year Hellman developed a line of hand-thrown pottery for Dodge using the colorful clays taken from the hanks of the Nemadji River northeast of Moose Lake. He created molds from these original pieces, then taught unskilled laborers to recreate them by the slip cast method. Hellman also introduced a "cold striped painting process," which gave Nemadji pottery its distinctive look as no two pots were alike.

To apply the paints, workers filled a galvanized wash-tub with water and a dash of vinegar. They then gently floated onto the water small droplets of oil-based enamel paint. By blowing gently across the paint, workers caused the droplets to merge creating colorful bands of paint. Blowing down into the middle of these floating bands created a circle of clear water into which a pot. was lowered by hand. When the blowing stopped the paint returned to the center of the tub. The worker then lifted the pot out with a twisting motion creating a swirl design.

 Pottery created between 1929 and 1972 was made with red to buff colored clays found near Moose Lake. Workers treated the interiors of these early pots with a quick swish of shellac, recycled from pot to pot, creating a beautiful patina. 

Once Hellman had created this unique pottery, he left the company. That's when Dodgers began promoting the pottery in earnest. He realized he had a good product but needed a hook to grab a share of the tourist market.

For that, Dodge sought to tie his pottery's to Minnesota's Indian Country. A practicing attorney, Dodge used his knowledge of the law and talents at creative writing to carefully create a legend describing the geology of Minnesota's Arrowhead region, its first primitive ancestors, and the remnants of ancient Native American pottery discovered there. While he never said Indians made Nemadji, Dodge drew a dotted line between the Ojibwa tribe and his pottery. And shopkeepers and tourists connected the dots.

The legend Dodge created went something like this .”The name "Nemadji" is the Ojibway word for “left-handed.” Nemadji pottery is made by skilled craftsmen whose deft hands throw pieces of clay on potters' wheels just as the Chinese centuries ago turned their pottery, which is today priceless. These craftsmen are under the three-thin of a skilled ceramist whose life has been spent in the production of pottery of an artistic type. Nemadji pottery expresses the soul of the Redman, who, though long since gone to the Happy Hunting Ground, still haunts our shores and woods."

Dodge had his legend printed on a pad of paper and sent with his pottery to trading posts and tourist stops, including the famed Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. When a pot sold, the shopkeeper tore a printed legend from the pad and gave it to the customer. Eager to purchase a small token of their trips to “Indian Country” and the Wild West, many tourists didn't hesitate to exchanged their nickels and quarters for a piece of Nemadji "Indian" Pottery with documentation of its noble history.

Since Nemadji sounded like an Native American tribal name, most people thought it was genuine Native American pottery. Dodge was clever enough say his pottery was “inspired” by Native American designs. And the tourists loved it. 

Dodge created rubber stamps to mark each pot. One of the earliest stamp marks features the image of a Native American arrowhead encircled by the words “Nemadji Pottery Moose Lake, Minnesota.“ Another early stamp reads handmade “Nemadji Indian Pottery from Native Clay.”

Most marks carry the words Nemadji Pottery or Nemadji Indian Pottery. Some are stamped with the words “Badlands Pottery of Nemadji Blackhills Pottery,.” used on pieces sold at Wall Drug in South Dakota during the 1930s and 1940s.

After 1950, pottery marks included the words Nemadji potting and the image of either an Indian head or an Indian in a canoe.

Over time, people misplaced the small pieces of paper from the pad and memories faded_ Eventually the owners of Nemadji referred to it simply as "Indian Pottery" and the Indian myth became reality.

But myths die hard, and today Nemadji pottery often appears for sale in antique stores and on the Internet as Indian-made, ancient Indian, or as rare Ojibwa pottery.

Legends aside, Nemadji commands moderate prices in the collectibles market. And as the interest in this true American tourist pottery increases, so do the prices. Small hand-thrown Nemadji pieces made by Eric Hellman in Moose Lake in the early 1930s have recently sold in the $100 range. Nemadji pottery produced before World War Il using red clays dug from the banks of the Nemadji River command prices ranging from $75 to $95.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Stirring Up the Witch’s Brew

 

QUESTION: One of my favorite times of the year is Fall because it brings with it Halloween. And my favorite Halloween motif is the witch—riding her broom through the crisp night sky. For years, I’ve collected all sorts of items having to do with witches. Recently, I visited Salem, Massachusetts, site of the infamous Salem witch trials. The place was just brimming with all sorts of Salem witch souvenirs. I almost went nuts. Can you tell me how witches got to be so popular? And are any of the souvenirs sold in Salem collectible?

ANSWER: Witches haven’t always been a popular fun motif. For centuries, being accused of being a witch often meant death by some horrible means—often being burned at the stake. Superstition ran rampant in past times when science was in its early stages and religion and mysticism ruled.

Though hunting down witches had been going on for centuries, it really got a kick start in 11th-century Europe when accusations of witchcraft fell upon anyone who did any sort of perceived evil deed. This was especially true of persons, usually women, who made herbal medicines and recipes for spells to cure the sick. 

The Puritans came to the New World to escape persecution and ended up being more intolerant than anyone. They brought with them all the superstitions they had lived with in their home countries. And that included their belief in witchcraft.

Salem was a depressing place in 1692. Neighbors bickered continuously over boundary lines and politics. The strict demands of Calvinism allowed no frivolity and little joy. Work lasted six days a week and on the seventh, people spent their day listening to dire warnings of Satan's nearness by harsh, punitive ministers. One of the most evil of temptations was sexuality. Fear and repression filled the Puritans daily lives. The settlers feared attacks by Indians and had only recently recovering from a smallpox epidemic. Any activities that stimulated mental or physical excitement were deemed sinful. So it’s easy to see how a group of teenage girls with an excess of energy and pent up emotion, coming in direct conflict with severe repression, could become obsessed with their own wild imaginings, and sexual fantasies.

But scientists and historians now believe that the hysterical girls were victims of either a poisonous fungus found in the bread made and eaten in the settlement or from hallucinations they suffered from the hemp they chewed to make it pliable for making rope. But the stage had long ago been set for the tragedy that was to befall those girls. Historians believe that over 9 million people, nearly all of them women, were the victims of witch hunts and burnings for five previous centuries.

In Europe, witch hunting was a profitable business. Local nobles, bishops. judges, magistrates and others all received a share of the wealth created from the picked pockets and stolen property of arrested citizens. Local government officials charged victims for the ropes that bound them and the wood that burned them. It wasn’t much different in Salem. Those who were jailed had to pay the jailer for food and the chains that held therm. Officials confiscated personal property to pay increasing debts. Some people who were later released fought for years to reclaim their stolen property.

Though original artifacts from this time period are rare, memorabilia such as Jonathan Corwin's trunk, accused Mary Hollingsworth English's sampler, Philip English's chair, cane and bottle and John Proctor's brass sundial do exist. There are also 552 documents related to the trials, known collectively as "The Salem Witchcraft Papers," including arrest warrants, examinations and death warrants. Also in this collection are the witch pins, claimed by the accusers to have been used by the "witches" to torment their victims. 

Victorians of the latter part of the 19th century loved to travel. And visitors wanted to take home souvenirs of their journeys, either natural or manmade. Daniel Low, the owner of a gift and silver shop in Salem, decided that the town could benefit from the types of souvenir pieces he had seen during trips to Europe. He first created a silver spoon with a witch design, complete with a broom and the word “Salem.” Low marked it "D Low Sterling" and a circle D for Durgin Silversmiths on the reverse side. Its popularity soon encouraged him to create another. As his spoons began selling wildly,  the witch image quickly became Salem's symbol. Low was the first to make souvenirs for tourists in the U.S.

Low patented his witch design on Jan. 13, 1891. The second spoon pattern, introduced in 1893, was much more ornate, having in its design a witch on a crescent moon, a cat, the three pins, the date of 1692, a hemp rope and a handle of a witch's broom. The design twines around the back of the spoon and shows the frayed end of the rope.

The success of these spoons was so enormous they began a souvenir craze across the country. Low then began a line of items for the Witch City trade that would he imitated by towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. He offered quality sterling silver souvenir items that included tea strainers, bookmarks, perfume bottles, matchsafes and dishes. Soon tourists insisted on more items at a moderate price. 

Other companies jumped an the souvenir bandwagon, creating items of china, glass, pottery and celluloid. Souvenir manufacturers presented dishes, sewing equipment, household implements, dresser items, and jewelry, for sale to eager tourists. 

Photography had come into its own by the last decades of the 19th century and postcards became a popular souvenir item. Tourists snapped them up. In fact, Jonathan Corwin's home where the trials took place, called the Witch House, has been pictured on postcards so often over the years, that postcards eventually documented changes in the site. So many publishers and printers have produced cards of this structure that prices are low because they are so common. They usually range between $1 and $6.

A variety of Salem witch souvenirs, including pins, spoons, plates, sheet music, and postcards sell for $40 or so at auctions. Spoons can sell for $150 or more, depending on their condition. 

While most people are familiar with the Salem witch trials, few know that the Salem witch memorabilia associated with the trials helped to launch the American souvenir industry.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.