Exceptionally rare and large Christopher Haun East Tennessee ring bottle, copper oxide and lead glazed earthenware with elaborate tread stamp designs and coggled band around outer circumference consisting of hexagonal and diamond star geometric designs and letters, “HAUN”, (Christopher Alexander Haun, Greene Co., TN, 1821-1861). Christopher Haun was a Union sympathizer during the Civil War and participated in burning a Confederate railroad bridge (Lick Creek) in Greene County, TN. This important event in East Tennessee Civil War history was initiated with a campaign by Union loyalists to burn 9 bridges. It was led by William B. Carter and strongly supported and encouraged by President Abraham Lincoln. Several potters from the Pottertown, TN area were among the men who conspired and succeeded in burning the bridge. The potters decided not to capture or kill the Confederate bridge guards but allowed them to go free based upon their solemn promises to not reveal their identities. Union troops did not materialize as promised, and the Confederates were able to pursue and capture some of the perpetrators. The Confederate guards, who had been allowed to live, were the very ones who served as witnesses to implicate the five men who were hung (four of them potters). Among those sentenced to die was potter Christopher Alexander Haun. On December 11th, 1861, Haun was hung from the gallows in Knoxville, TN. Provenance - descended through the John Houston Cox family of Lenoir City, TN (b. 1863 – 1949). Diameter 10″, total length including spout, 10 3/4″. (Research courtesy of Carole Wahler). Note – one of the most elaborately decorated Southern ring bottles to surface, it is believed to be the only C.A. Haun ring bottle example extant, and is the earliest Tennessee ring bottle example by a known maker.

Overall excellent condition.