The creations of brothers Cornwall and Wallace Kirkpatrick, owners of Anna Pottery, have become some of the quintessential pieces of American folk pottery. While utilitarian stoneware and pipe bowls were produced in large quantities at the pottery in southern Illinois, collectors show limited interest in those pieces. Instead, they want the fanciful and the fantastic. The Kirkpatricks produced both.

Anna, Ill., wasn’t the first stop for the brothers. Cornwall established the Steam Pottery in Mound City, Ill., in 1857. He was joined by Wallace and their father, Andrew Sr., but the business closed two years later due to a lack of funds.

Cornwall then moved about 25 miles north, where he opened Anna Pottery in 1859. He was again joined by his father and brother. Although Andrew Sr. died a few years later, the brothers continued the operation. Aided by an ample supply of clay and readily accessible transportation via the Illinois Central Railroad, they quickly found success.

“In 1860 after less than a year in operation, the Anna Pottery was producing 80,000 gallons of ware worth $7,200 and employed 11 potters,” according to The Kirkpatricks’ Potteries in Illinois: A Family Tradition by Bonnie L. Gums, Eva Dodge Mounce and Floyd R. Mansberger. “Stoneware products of the Anna Pottery included jugs, plates, crocks, pitchers, milk pans, fruit jars, flower and cemetery urns, tobacco pipes, fire-brick, chimney pots, roof tiles, and drainage pipes.”

With the pottery making money and running smoothly, Cornwall and Wallace put time into pursuits that appealed to them, including the making of ceramic items that have become highly prized by collectors of Anna pottery and American folk art.

The brothers’ different interests contributed to the folk pottery they produced. Cornwall was active in politics and became the first mayor of Anna, a position he held for three terms. A trained bookkeeper, he was also the business head of the pottery.

His political passion and detail-oriented skills served him well in creating commemorative and decorative jugs and urns, including some produced for local and regional fairs. Large examples are covered with dozens of names, titles and businesses.

“These vessels were elaborately incised with the names of county and fair officials and prominent citizens with cobalt blue added to highlight the inscriptions,” noted The Kirkpatricks’ Potteries in Illinois. “After each fair, the commemorative piece was presented to the local society that sponsored the event.”

Fewer than 20 fair jugs or directory pieces are known, according to Mike Isom, founder of Anna Kirkpatrick Pottery Museum. He believes those items are one example of how Cornwall sought to preserve the past through the use of stoneware.

“Cornwall was concerned with scribing the history of society, the economic structure and the politics of the time in stone. I think that was his purpose in making these novelty items,” Isom said.

Fair jugs weren’t the only means to that end. And, Wallace played as integral and unique a role as his brother. While Cornwall ventured into politics and business, Wallace was noted as an avid outdoorsman.

“One of the most interesting aspects was his knowledge of the local wildlife and plant life due to his hunting and fishing activities,” Isom said of Wallace. “He was a snake hunter and advertised to buy snakes.”

A snake pit at the pottery was stocked with species indigenous to southern Illinois, including rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads.

“He would literally show those snakes at the pottery,” said Isom. “When I think of Wallace, I think of a P.T. Barnum-type of guy. Wallace went to the local ag fairs and went to World’s Fairs. He was the guy who hit the road to show the talents of the pottery and to sell souvenirs at the fairs and to drum up business and orders. At the fairs he would take a kick wheel and mold items there, and he would take a snake pit and do shows at the fair.”

Wallace’s familiarity with snakes can be seen in the snake jugs he produced. Whether created with a single snake or multiple examples, the vessels were intricately detailed. While some made political statements, most snake jugs were designed to trumpet the temperance movement.

Both brothers made a stand against alcohol, but Wallace was more vocal on the issue. His snake jugs, according to Isom, made a point. “One has eight poisonous black vipers writhing across the top of the jug, daring a drinker to touch it and die. The jug visually speaks of danger. The snakes are mad, the snakes are black, and the snakes are on the move,” he said.

Other jugs use molded human figures to further hammer home the message of the evils of alcohol. Included is the Drunkard’s Doom jug showing two men standing waist deep in whiskey. Incised by the pair is “The hope of the family” and “The nice young man.”

Isom described the symbolism. “Into the whiskey goes all that’s nice and all that’s hopeful,” he said. “Out comes one central figure, the Drunkard’s Doom. He’s attacked by vipers, which represent that whiskey within.”

Taking less of an in-your-face approach were the Kirkpatricks’ pig flasks, for which Anna Pottery may be best known. These molded vessels, most in the shape of an anatomically correct boar, were often incised with a railroad map, as well as a not-so-subtle message, such as “With a little good old Bourbon in a hog’s …,” the word “ass” substituted by a line or hand pointing to the pig’s anus, where the spout is located.

It remains unclear whether pig flasks were meant as temperance tokens. Isom believes the stench of pigs and the placement of the spout are indicators that the Kirkpatricks used the jugs to speak out against the evils of alcohol. Another view is expressed on AnnaPottery.com, where an article notes, “The fact that many of the Kirkpatricks’ best customers were tavern owners and distilling companies does raise doubts that the brothers should wish to bite the hands that fed them.”

In addition to railroad guides, pig flasks promoted river transportation, selected cities and towns, and commodities such as corn and pork. Others were incised with advertising, poetry and drawings.

Frog mugs were another popular novelty. Each cup had a molded frog in the bottom, the critter being revealed when the vessel was drained. “The frog was meant to amuse the drinker or scare the drinker,” said Isom. “There are a lot of stories of parents and grandparents who bought the cups to encourage children to drink their milk to find the frog.”

A slogan was often incised on the outside of the mug. The writing, such as “Cairo musician” or “Cairo nightingale,” referred to both the amphibian inside the mug and the southern Illinois town at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Frogs and pigs found uses in other novelties, such as frog banks and inkwells, and pig lamps.

The diversity of wares was limited only by the Kirkpatricks’ imaginations. The Kirkpatricks’ Potteries in Illinois describes “Pioneer Farms” created by Wallace. “These Pioneer Farms, often as large as 25 square feet, consisted of painted stoneware pieces depicting log cabins, barns, farm animals, and people at work and children at play all within a miniature ceramic landscape of trees, bushes, rocks, and water.”

The resourcefulness didn’t stop there. Other Anna pieces include toothpick holders, match safes, whistles, doll heads, busts, figurines and miniature chamber pots.

Discoveries are still being made, while other pieces of Anna have yet to be found. Isom said a jug made for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was incised with the Declaration of Independence. Its whereabouts remain unknown. He’s also heard unconfirmed reports that pottery dog tags were made for Civil War veterans.