RALEIGH
Not many people are familiar with the name Isaac Lefevers, but in pottery circles, he is known as the James Dean of North Carolina pottery.
Like Dean, the actor known for Rebel Without a Cause, Lefevers was talented and died young. Lefevers, a Lincoln County potter, also was his own kind of rebel, dying in 1864 at the age of 33 of an injury suffered in the Civil War. Because he died so young, few of his pots survive and even fewer are available for sale.
But on Sept. 28, a pot that Lefevers may have thrown will be one of about 200 pots auctioned at a benefit for the N.C. Pottery Center in Seagrove, a museum that's in the midst of a $100,000 fundraiser.
Potter Mark Hewitt of Pittsboro, a co-author of the book The Potter's Eye: Art & Tradition in North Carolina Pottery, said he believes that Lefevers threw the 3-gallon, unsigned jug that has a badly repaired handle.
"Even with no stamp and with a damaged handle, it's an iconic piece of North Carolina pottery," said Hewitt, who is organizing the auction.
Lefevers didn't sign all his work, but the pot's firing is very similar to one that's in The Potter's Eye that Lefevers did sign, Hewitt said. "It's very well made, it's light, it's extremely well-thrown," Hewitt said. He couldn't say that it is a Lefevers, but "it has all the characteristics."
The jug belongs to Dr. Everette James of Chapel Hill, who began collecting pottery in the mid-1990s when he was researching his book North Carolina Art Pottery 1900 to 1960, published in 2003.
The center has raised about $40,000, has pledges of $15,000 more and has a $10,000 challenge if it raises $90,000.
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