LOCAL

Answer Man: Brown's Pottery in transition?

John Boyle
The Citizen-Times
Charlie and Jeanette Brown have run Brown's Pottery together for decades. Charlie and his sons make much of the pottery, while Jeanette handles the glazing. The Arden store will close March 31, but the Browns will reopen in Pisgah Forest later this spring.

Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: What is going on with Brown's Pottery in Arden? Are they closing?    

My answer: You mean after just 319 years in business?

Real answer: Brown's Pottery has had family members producing pottery here and in Georgia since 1700, which is why they tout themselves as the "oldest continuing producers of Ugly Face Jugs and Southern Folk pottery in America." More about those ugly face jugs in a minute.

Brown's Pottery has been in Arden since the 1920s, first at a nearby location where the Wells Fargo bank is now, and then at 2398 Hendersonville Road since 1940.

Brown's Pottery will close its Arden location at the end of March. The family-owned business, now in its 11th generation, will reopen in Pisgah Forest later this spring.

"We've been on this ground right here for five generations," Charlie Brown said.

And now that's coming to an end — in this location.

"We will be out of here March 31," Brown said. "We are not closing, though. We are relocating. We're saying to people we would like everybody to come by and see us."

Charlie Brown runs the business with his wife, Jeanette, 61, and their two sons, Christian, 27, and "Little" Charlie, 30. 

They'll be moving to a new location in the town of Pisgah Forest, which they hope to have up and running about a month after closing the Hendersonville Road store.

"We didn't sell the business, just the structure," Jeanette Brown said, noting that the building was sold late last year.

"I'm 69 years old, and I do want to slow down a bit," Charlie Brown said. "And here we're in the city, and the traffic is tremendous."

He and Jeanette have lived above the pottery for the past decade, and they don't really need a lot of car traffic to sustain their business. Before that, they were able to enjoy raising their kids in the country, and they consider themselves country people.

Hendersonville Road was a two-lane thoroughfare when Charlie was a kid in the 1950s. Now the traffic almost never slows.

Jeanette said they spent some time at their new place in Pisgah Forest recently, where they'll also live. They were able to build a fire pit and enjoy the stars at night.

"We want to go find that same serenity and peacefulness for our family," Jeanette said.

They'll also be able to have a dog, a major bonus.

The Browns prefer to sell their current merchandise rather than move it all, so it's priced to move, with mugs in the $15-20 range, and classic brown and white "liquor jugs" for $80, for example.

But those ugly face jugs, which literally have a not-so-attractive clay face baked onto the exterior, can run into hundreds of dollars. Face jugs date to the early days of America, with the devil face jugs having a rich history in African-American culture.

As Charlie Brown explains it, Africans would put a large devil face jug on the grave of a deceased loved one and come back to retrieve it a year later. If the jug remained there intact, a party ensued.

If the jug was broken or missing, it meant the deceased soul was lost in a monumental struggle with the devil.

Charlie Brown also tells a story of his grandfather back in the 1920s, on the verge of absolutely going broke. He created an ugly face jug that sold for $2.25.

"Since then, one of my grandpa's (face jugs) has sold for $65,000," Brown said, adding that another one that once graced the old T.S. Morrison's general store in downtown Asheville once sold for $80,000.

One of Brown's Pottery's specialties is face jugs, including devil face jugs, a traditional Southern folk art form. Jeanette and Charlie Brown will close their Arden location at the end of March. The family-owned business, now in its 11th generation, will reopen in Pisgah Forest later this spring.

Brown family face jugs are in numerous prominent museums now, top examples of Southern folk art.

The Browns acknowledge that business has slowed in recent years, as tastes have changed and Asheville's arts and crafts scene has shifted to downtown Asheville and the River Arts District. At one point, during World War II when Brown's was making "Valor Ware" pottery that was shipped all over the country, the company had 40 employees.

But the Browns are confident their new location will sustain the business for the 11th generation. They'll keep folks updated on their Facebook page (search for Brown's Pottery), and they plan to launch a website, too.

The Browns make a lot of traditional Southern pottery, including classic liquor jugs.

They've never been all about the money, Jeanette stresses, noting that she worked as a nurse for 12 years and Charlie spent years also working as a firefighter and EMT for Skyland Fire & Rescue.

Brown's Pottery will close its Arden location at the end of March. The family-owned business, now in its 11th generation, will reopen in Pisgah Forest later this spring. The business is known for traditional pottery.

"We appreciate every person who's come in here over the years — whether they've bought anything or not," Jeanette Brown said with a smile.        

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 828-232-5847 or jboyle@citizentimes.com