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U-990 These are the "Teapots"! Gerald Brown wrote: "This insulator seems to me, to be the most interesting and among the rarest of all the porcelains that have been found." Although not the rarest anymore, it is still the most interesting. I have several, of which no two come close to another in color. There are two sizes: the larger is 4-3/8" diameter and the smaller is 3-7/8". |
| Jack Tod referenced the following to the 1939 book Marketing Burned Clay Products, by A. Hamilton Chute: "A pottery in Koalin, SC during the war, made porcelain and pottery insulators for use on the Confederate Telegraph Line." Jack then mused that "some of you insulator buffs should try out the dump digging in Kaolin. Wow, just the thought of finding that one!" That was in 1975. | | |
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In the February, 1997 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire magazine, Dick Bowman proclaimed, "It is a mystery no more!" The Southern Porcelain dump had been located and dug. The unglazed U-990 "Teapot" and porcelain block and examples of the specimens dug at the recently discovered site. The U-989 has also been linked to the Southern dig. | |
| The Southern Porcelain Co. was founded in 1856 by William Farrar, who also had ties to the U.S. Pottery in Bennington, Vermont, another known producer of porcelain threadless. Southern made insulators for the Confederacy at least for the duration of the Civil War era. A fire consumed the factorsy in 1864, but a new porcelain company was organized in 1865. | | |
| One can only speculate about the years prior to and just after the Civil War. What was Southern Porcelain's involvement in the insulator business then? | ||
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