(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

OLD POTTERY WHEEL RECALLS DISAPPEARING ANCIENT ART

Dan Mercer Who Uses Instrument Learned Trade From Uncle In Greensborough, Pa.

A “potter wheel” used in San Francisco to make pottery-ware for the ’49 gold rush is in Dan E. Mercer’s workshop at the Porcelain plant on the South Side. Mr. Mercer, in his spare time, makes pottery by hand, with the aid of this ancient wheel.

The wheel was brought to Parkersburg by a potter named Donahoe in 1872. The local pottery was located at Murdoch avenue and Twenty-fifth street where the Highway service station now stands. Mrs. Caroline Jewel, a local woman, has a large pitcher made in the early days of local pottery and the label reads, “M. Scott, Parkersburg, Virginia.” (It was made before West Virginia existed.) The Donahoe plant was abandoned in 1906 and the old pottery wheel was thrown to the junk at a machine shop. It was there that Dan Mercer found it.

Dan Mercer, who came to Parkersburg in 1888, learned the fascinating art of making pottery by hand in his uncle’s pottery in Greensborough, Pa., when a young lad. Today [1940] he is one of the very few potters retaining the ancient craft. He says it is not only a very interesting hobby but a very profitable one, for those seeking his work become interested, and he constantly has more orders than he can fill. Old fashioned bean pots seem to be more or less a specialty with Mr. Mercer for the requests are so numerous he makes them by the dozens, putting any desired name on the side, when the finished glaze is applied. He says he likes to experiment with various designs, sizes and shapes in vases and jars. Beautiful dishes in colors can be turned out by Mr. Mercer as easily as a plain jug. Size is no object either, the big urns in the lobby of the Chancellor hotel are Mercer productions.

Are More Expensive

Machines today turn out pottery from molds, making the hand-made pieces much more expensive. For example, 56 one-gallon jars can be made for $1.00 by hand, by machinery they are 75 cents per hundred!

The pottery wheel from California, which Mr. Mercer uses, is a round, flat, solid disc, lying on the flat surface of Mr. Mercer’s work table. Below the table top a rod or stem connects the disc to another wheel which resembles a wagon wheel in appearance, but is somewhat smaller. The stem, called a “spinel,” has an elbow or joint just above the lower wheel to which a foot pedal is attached. By pushing the pedal back and forth with the foot, the disc on the table whirls or revolves rapidly. It is on this whirling disc that the clay is worked into interesting objects.

Before the clay is put on the wheel to be worked, it is kneaded vigorously to dispel all the air from the clay, for air bubbles in finished ware makes bumps. On-lookers invariably tell Mr. Mercer the kneading process looks like breadmaking. After sufficient kneading, the ball of clay is placed on the wheel. As the wheel turns the clay is made pliable by water from a sponge. The potter begins forming the object, whether it be a vase, jug, bean pot, pitcher or other ware, by hollowing a hole in the center. The hand is kept inside to shape the sides, and by the hand it is gradually “stretched” and drawn upward for height. The clay looks and feels like grey rubber while the processing is on, but as it dries it looks like stone. To make a quart size jar or vase it takes three pounds of clay, four-quart size takes six- and one-half pounds, and a jug takes seven pounds.

The Parkersburg News,

July 15, 1940

To be concluded next week …

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.