Perpetual Pottery
From time to time, a rare individual, with distinctive talent, drive, and purpose comes along. Tenacious and ambitious, Charles Frederick Decker, Master Potter, left an indelible mark in Appalachia. Originally from Germany, he bravely brought to America a process that originated prior to the year 1500, salt-glazed pottery. The specificity of his craft using salt glaze and cobalt, introduced a utilitarian, and sometimes aesthetic product, with fantastically successful results.
Decker's first son, Charles, died in 1905 at the age of 48. By 1906, Decker’s health began to fail. His third wife of twenty-two years, Susan, died on February 24, 1909. Then, his second son, William, died on October 27, 1909, at the age of 50, from brain congestion. The announcement of his death in the Herald and Tribune described him as a true and honest gentlemen…held in the highest esteem by all who knew him. With Decker’s failing health, and the loss of two sons, the pottery business began to decline. Decker died on March 11, 1914, from pneumonia, just a few weeks short of his 82nd birthday. Decker, his second and third wife, and his two sons, are all buried at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
There is no actual recorded date of the cease of operations of Keystone Pottery. The date of 1910 is accepted because Decker was nearing the age of eighty, and he had recently lost his third wife, and two of his sons, Charles and William, who were the most involved with the pottery. Also, no Keystone pottery surfaced after 1910. Charles F. Decker had been in the pottery business for 63 years. More than 30 of those years were in Washington County, Tennessee.
Written evidence, regarding Decker’s personal character, is recorded in his obituary in a Washington County newspaper in 1914, found in the John Fain Collection, housed in the Archives of Appalachia. The following description gives insight into the man behind the pottery and whose industry and genius have flowed into the culture and heritage of Washington County.
His long life was one of simplicity, of calm sanity, of patient labor and honest thrift. Born and reared among the great middle class of the Fatherland, he had by heritage and training, the stolid, inflexible virtues which make Germans great. He believed in living well, but not in waste. He believed in hard labor, but not in slavery to the task. He could be serious without being sour, and funny without being foolish. In work he was slow, steady, sure, and thorough always. In friendship he was sincere, hospitable, even affectionate. In business he was frank and open, with no trick nor hidden flaws. No man could suspect him; all men could trust him. He was an honest man – ‘the noblest of God.’ If his virtues were practiced in the fields and enthroned in the lives of all our people, Washington County would blossom as the rose.
Charles Decker came to Appalachia to mass-produce pottery. Many of the artistic and unusual pieces were produced for attention and advertising, not necessarily for artistic reasons. Fortunately, we have the privilege of applying artistic appreciation to Decker’s pottery pieces today; and we stand in awe of his talent and commitment to quality in such a labor-intensive genre. A statement by Laurence Binyon in The Spirit of Man in Asian Art applies to Decker’s work. There is no conscious attempt to express anything, but the curves of the shape do express energy and control. The complete work is filled with a mysterious life like a human personality.
Evidence of the importance of Decker’s pottery to the history of Appalachia is substantiated in a 1971 article in the Johnson City Press, which stated that signed decorative works like face jugs, are bringing up to $25,000 at auction. While the monetary value is indeed impressive, what articulates Decker’s contribution to the genre of art in Appalachia, even more than the historical import, is his acculturation into Appalachia.
An article in the Herald and Tribune dated June 19, 1895 stated: Mr. Decker is one of our best citizens. Another article on June 26, 1895 read: Mr. Decker is well known for his generous disposition, and capacity to furnish pleasure to his friends, and in our case we know nothing was left undone which could in the least add to our comfort and pleasure. Mr. Decker has one of the best cultivated farms on the river, and conducts it on the same business like principle he does his other affairs. His pottery is now in full blast, and turning out quantities of most excellent ware, such as no one has seen excelled.
Charles Decker discovered his sense of place, used the materials available to perfect his craft, immersed himself in the community, passed along the pottery trade to his sons, and became not only a successful potter, but a good citizen, friend, and neighbor. He was an Appalachian in the purest sense of the word; and his pottery is now considered Appalachian art.