We go to estate sales regularly and come across a wide array of unique and rare items.  We add to our growing online inventory daily.  We pick up new items from all over the world and all over the US.  We also have a growing customer wish list.  If you'd like to, feel free to add us to your saved seller's list and let us know what you collect and/or need.  We’d be honored to add you to our customer wish list.

We ask what we consider to be a fair price for anything we sell and understand that our idea of a fair price may be someone else's 'that's too much' price.  If that's the case, feel free to make us an offer and we will consider it.  We also have sales regularly, so check back often.

There is always a Sale by TheBay!

I've collected studio pottery for most of my life now.  My love of hand thrown pottery goes back to my early days in Sacramento in the late 70s and early 80s watching my uncle turn a lump of clay into a vessel.  I've managed to amass an incredible collection of studio pottery from around the world.  I've come to the realization that I only have so much room to display my collection.  I end up wrapping every piece I buy these days in bubble wrap and then putting them in a cardboard box filled with packing peanuts since I have no more room to display any pieces.  We've decided to let some of our lesser and more common pieces go to new homes.  Although I may consider many pieces in my collection to be a lesser piece, it doesn't mean that the piece isn't valuable and made by one of the most well known potters, no matter where they're from.  I know who most of the potters are who made the pieces in my collection, but there are still some that I have failed to identify over the decades.  Even after well over 40 years of collecting, I am still learning new potter's marks and adding to my database of known potters and their marks or signatures.  Most of the pieces we'll be listing are from potters we are familiar with, but we will almost certainly be letting go of some unidentifed artists.  If you are a collector of studio pottery and are looking to add to your collection, feel free to check our store inventory under the pottery category as we add pieces over the coming days and weeks.

Now onto the item for sale.

For sale is an outstanding hand thrown studio pottery teacup made by the infamous potter Charles Counts who established Pottery at Rising Fawn in 1963.

This cup is relatively small, as the dimensions below indicate, so it may be an espresso or sake cup, but we're referring to it as a teacup.

As you can see, this teacup has Charles' infamous Rising Fawn incised on the back.

It also has what we trust is the original price sticker on the bottom.  It has faded quite a bit over the decades, but looking at it through a jeweler's loupe and we're 99.9% certain it reads $1.50.

He used this mark from 1963 to 1982, so we know it would've been made during that time frame, but we'd venture to guess in the 1960s given the $1.50 original price.

We also have another teacup that has an identical shape that was made by Legatha Walston while she worked at Rising Fawn from 1964-1969.

Charles Counts is one of the most well known and collected potters in Georgia.

He was born in Harlan County, KY in 1934 and his family moved to Oak Ridge, TN in 1944.

Interestingly, the family moved to a government planned secret city that was the headquarters of the Manhattan Project.

He moved back to Kentucky to study at Berea College where he first discovered pottery.

Charles received a graduate fellowship from Southern Illinois University and then after that, he went out west to study ceramic design at the University of Southern California.

While there, he apprenticed with Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain who was the proprietor of Pond Farm Pottery in Guerneville, CA.

He worked for Marguerite one summer and said he "learned more in six weeks than all my six years of college or university".

After serving in the U.S. Army, Charles and his first wife Rubynelle moved close to Knoxville, TN and opened Beaver Ridge Pottery.

It was said that they made more than 10,000 pots between 1959 and 1962 at Beaver Ridge.

In 1963, the couple moved to the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain where they established Pottery Shop at Rising Fawn.

Charles traveled to Nigeria in 1972 and met Lady Kwali at the Pottery Training Center in Abuja.

Lady Kwali was the first woman trained in Abuja by famed English potter Michael Cardew.

Later that same year Lady Kwali came to America and after traveling the country for seven weeks, she stayed at the Counts pottery.

Charles continued to travel back and forth to Nigeria for years and ultimately moved there in 1990 where he contracted malaria and passed away in 2000.

The teacup has a speckled tan glaze and natural clay bottom synonymous with Charles Counts pieces on the outside with a brown glaze on the inside.

It is in excellent, undamaged, like new condition.

This teacup is 2 3/8" tall with a 2 11/16" diameter at the top.

This teacup will weigh under one pound when packed for shipping.  We offer several insured shipping options, just make your selection at checkout.

Thanks for looking and God bless!