Edwin Nub Meaders.
Red Glazed 'Nub #1' Backward-Facing Rooster.
2010.
Incised "Nub's #1" on the breast.
Signature and date inscribed on base.
Rooster is 15.5"h.
Mint condition with bright colors.
Provenance: The Mike Dale Collection.
Est. $800-$1,200.
Ship: $85

 Edwin Nub Meaders was born on March 1, 1921, the fourth and youngest son of Cheever and Arie Waldrup Meaders of Cleveland, Georgia. Edwin Meaders was born into a family that had been producing pottery wares in White County since the 1890s. Meaders married and raised a family, but he did not seriously pursue the family business until the winter of 1969-1970, when, after retiring from a poultry processing plant, he set up his own old-fashioned pottery operation behind his home and less than a mile from the original Meaders Pottery where his brother Lanier's shop was located.

By this time Lanier had achieved a great deal of success with his face jug creations and was selling them just about as fast as he could make them. Hoping for similar success, Edwin became discouraged when the coffeepots, pitchers, and jugs he made from three firings of his small wood-burning kiln did not sell as easily as he expected, and for a time he abandoned the project. In the summer of 1981, Edwin revived his operation and, with guidance from his mother Arie, he was soon specializing in wheel-thrown roosters similar to the ones she had developed but with their own streamlined, art deco-like appearance. The Rooster Man had found his niche! Edwin's roosters were sold by the Cleveland Library in conjunction with a small exhibit of the family's wares. Word spread quickly, and in no time pottery collectors began swarming around his shop.

Edwin Meaders specialized in dark green alkaline glazed roosters and later his signature cobalt blue glazed roosters, but he also made futuristic-looking face jugs with giant ears as well as traditional wares such as jugs which, like his mother, he often decorated with grapes. The Red Glazed 'Nub's #1' Backward-Facing Rooster offered here is rare for Meaders. He got the red glaze from his sister-in-law, Mildred Meaders, a fine potter in her own right, who began making pottery full time after her husband John died. Edwin made this rooster in 2010 at 89 years of age. The quality of the work is superb, and the fact that he continued to experiment with glazes at his advanced age indicates that he never stopped trying to learn more about his craft. Edwin was also interested in passing along his knowledge to a younger generation of potters. He was influential in interesting his nephew David Meaders in pottery, showing him basic turning techniques and teaching him about glazes, and a very young Clint Alderman informally apprenticed with Edwin Meaders.

At the time of his death at his Cleveland home, at age 94, on September 22, 2015, Meaders was survived by 11 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. He was featured in the Fox Fire Book #8. His work is displayed in the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, Sautee Nacoochee, GA, and is part of numerous important private folk pottery collections.