Blue Ridge

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In the late 1930's Southern Potteries Inc, in the small town of Erwin, Tennessee, began producing highly decorated hand painted dinnerware in a new style that became known as "Blue Ridge China." Unlike other highly adorned pottery that achieved its elaborate floral imagery by applying decals, Blue Ridge china was hand painted with bright colors. The hand painted pottery being produced resulted in an aesthetic that was more playful than decorative china from Europe and Asia and became a uniquely American form of pottery. For hundreds of years European and Asian style pottery had been in vogue, so the introduction of Blue Ridge china was the first ceramics produced in an "American" style, which was very endearing to consumers.

At one time Blue Ridge china was the largest market for dinnerware in the United States and was sold at large nationwide department stores, as well as through catalogs, such as the highly popular Sears catalog. Southern Potteries Inc was able to meet the high demand for Blue Ridge china by use of an assembly line. Men would make the vessels and fire the pieces, then young women would use different colored glazes to paint flowers and borders onto the pieces. Antique Blue Ridge China is sometimes stamped with the company's logo and those pieces not marked can still be easily identified by the dinnerware's unique aesthetic. Some of the more talented painters were allowed to paint their own unique designs onto the plates and sign each work of art with her signature. These "Artists Signed Plates" are very rare and, therefore, more valuable than unsigned Blue Ridge china although due to the handpainted nature of the pottery, no two pieces of antique Blue Ridge china are exactly alike.

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Blue Ridge

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