Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Pottery: vase

  • wcu_craft_revival-6566.jpg
  • This undated photograph by an unknown photographer is of a blackware pottery vase made by Louise Bigmeat Maney (1932-2001). Louise Bigmeat was raised on Wrights Creek in the Painttown community of Cherokee, North Carolina. A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, she was a third-generation potter. While she was a young child, she and her two sisters began making pottery with their mother, Charlotte Welch Bigmeat (1887-1959). Louise Bigmeat married John Henry Maney and, together they established Bigmeat House of Pottery. In 1979, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual organized an exhibiton of pottery by the Bigmeat sisters; in 1998, Louise Bigmeat Maney received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. This Indian head vase is a form that was produced by both the Bigmeat family. A similar vase made by Elizabeth Bigmeat Jackson is in the collection (Identifier QACM_1992_135).