Please help!!!!!
Calpurnia7
I have searched the library and the book store, as well as posting
questions. I can't seem to find any information on a crock/bowl I have.
On the bottom it says:
RUCKEL'S POTTERY
1870
WHITE HALL
ILL
If you can give me any information or a source that has information I
would greatly appreciate it. THANKS!!!!!!!
James Murphy
There is a section on the Ruckels pottery in <The Potteries of White Hall>,
Vol. 1, no. 2 of the Historic Illinois Potteries circular series, published by
The Foundation for Historical Research of Illinois Potteries, 1527 E. Converse,
Springfield, IL 62702. I don't know the price.
According to this booklet, written by Eva Dodge Mounce, A.D. ruckel and M.C.
Purdy came from Dayton, Ohio, to White Hall, Ill., in 1870, where they bought
the pottery owned by Charles Garbett, enlarging the building and installing the
first steam powered engine to be used in a Whtie Hall pottery. Ruckel sold his
interest in the business to Purdy in 1877. In 1883 Ruckel purchased the D.C.
Banta pottery, originally built by C.B. Ebey, then by L.C. Murphy and E.M.
Bates. Ruckel named his new pottery The White Hall Potter Works. His son,
Carroll A., was taken into the firum in 1893 and it was then called A.D. Ruckel
and Son. A.D. Ruckel died in 1911, and Carroll Ruckel retired in 1936,
<giving> the entire ownership of the pottery and clay lands to R.F. Barnett, an
employee of 21 years. It was then renamed "Ruckel's Pottery." The last kiln
of stoneware was burned in 1951, after which the pottery made lawn and art
ware. It was still in business in 1988, when Mounce's booklet was written.
From the time of its founding until 1900, the A.D. Ruckel Pottery made only
brown, Albany slip glazed stoneware. White Bristol slip was introduced in
1900.
In 1926, White Hall celebrated the centennial of the founding of its pottery
industry. The Ruckel's pottery participated by producing utilitarian stoneware
with the following inscription impressed on vessel bases: "Ruckel's Pottery,
1870, White Hall, Ill." The 1870 date refers to the year that A.D. Ruckel
began his career in Whtie Hall and is not the date the crock was made.
Jim Murphy
jmu...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu