Decorative Arts May 2, 2008

Along the Ohio River in the nineteenth century, pottery making, using the available clay, was one of the local industries. Working at their pottery factory in Anna, Illinois, the Kirkpatrick brothers, Cornwall (1814-90) and Wallace (1828-96), produced utilitarian ceramics such as sewer pipes. They also made imaginatively decorated vessels for household use; even a chimney pot in their hands could become a whimsical sculpture.