carved designs, green, signed by artist M.L., 4 1/4" tall, 5 3/4" diameter, excellent...........In 1913, Stephen moved to Skyland, North Carolina, and established his second Nonconnah Pottery. Clarence Pine Ryman backed Stephen. Although located on a major highway, the pottery closed after five years because of the lack of tourist traffic.Stephen built Pisgah Forest Pottery, his third pottery, in Aden, North Carolina, around 1925. He was a pioneer in the development of crystalline glazes, Oriental glazes, and the creation of cameo ware, mimicking Wedgwood’s Jasperware. Stephen’s cameo ware was created by multiple hand painted layers rather than molded. Designs such as cabins, covered wagons, fiddlers, Indian hunts, and other folk scenes were inspired by his youth. He maintained contact with other regional potters such as Oscar Bachelder of Omar Khayyam Pottery.Stephen’s pottery was sold at local gift shops and advertised as “The ware where the sunset tints the Land of the Sky.” The 1930s were Stephen’s peak sale period. Starting in 1939, Stephen became active in the Southern Highlands Craft Guild which sold his work at their salesroom and annual craft fairs.Upon Stephen’s death in 1961, his step-grandson Thomas Case and Grady Ledbetter continued to produce pottery. Cameo ware and crystalline ware were discontinued. Case and Ledbtter preserved the pottery site which still contained the 1917 clay filters, 1929 wood kiln, and 1920s glaze containers.When Case died in 2014, the pottery was closed and the contents donated to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, North Carolina. Walter Stephen’s pottery has appeared in special exhibitions at the Asheville Museum, Mint Museum in Charlotte, and many other Southern museums.

EXCELLENT