Nine inch tall vase with great blue/green color and imbosed flower design. From the Wisconson Pottery Association --
hyalyn Porcelain Company
1943-1973
Hickory, North Carolina
The following information is from a presentation to the Wisconsin Pottery Association in 1999. On April 4, 2000, Lynn Moody Igoe, the daughter of H Leslie & Frances Moody wrote to the Wisconsin Pottery Association with notes & comments regarding the presentation. The numbered footnotes throughout refer to these notes that appear at the bottom of this page.
hyalyn Porcelain Company
Presented by Christine & Jamie Boone
The Artists Behind hyalyn
H. Leslie Moody and Frances Moody
Leslie Moody was a native of Zanesville, Ohio. During his high school and college years, he found summer employment at many of the potteries in that area. He majored in architecture for 2 years at Ohio State University (1), then, in 1931, he helped set up the equipment for the newly-established Department of Ceramic Art. He studied under Arthur E. Baggs (2), who was hired away from Cowan Pottery to develop a course at OSU in all phases of art pottery production. He researched glazes as part of his degree, and kept all of his notes on his studies on glazes (3). He received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Ceramic Arts from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Frances also attended Ohio State and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and then, in 1929, a Masters Degree in Sculpture.
After college, in their early 20’s (4), they moved to Dallas, TX. Leslie began working at Love Field Pottery – a small pottery that produced large gray crocks and jars used in grocery stores. But this was during the depression, business was slow, and Leslie soon had no job. He told his boss he would like to try selling the crocks, so Leslie and Frances spent the next year traveling all over Texas, staying in “tourist courts”, and selling the crocks – mostly to people who were making “home-brew” (5).
After a year, they returned to Columbus, and Leslie got a job at Ohio State in the Ceramic Art Department, and Frances began teaching classes in sculpture to children.
Early in 1934, Vernon Stockdale of Abingdon Pottery came to OSU looking for someone to manage a new artware division. They set off for Abingdon IL – where sanitary ware was currently produced – for Leslie’s interview. Raymond Bidwell was also interested in the development of the artistic side of the artware division, and interviewed Frances the same day. Leslie was hired as one of the managers of the Abingdon Artware Division that held its Grand Opening in August 1934. The main designer was Eric Hertslet, and Frances was, as she says, “sort of a non-commissioned participant” whenever they wanted something modeled.
Eric Hertslet died in the early months of production, and Frances Moody became the designer of many of the most prized pieces of Abingdon artware. She was an accomplished sculptress, or modeler, and sculpted many of the pieces in plaster to create a model from which the production molds were made. She designed all six of the 1934-38 Abingdon sculptured female figures. Many of her designs were based on projects she had done at OSU – the Kneeling Nude (6), a “mystery lady” she had called “Night”, and the chess set (7). Besides several of the cookie jars, her designs also included the Horsehead and Seagull bookends, the Daisy line, the Peacock, the Pouter Pigeon, and the donkey and elephant lines made for the 1940 election year.
Leslie was interested in the design of the pieces, and did design the Abingdon Fern Leaf pattern – a very popular line to collectors today. He was even more interested in the glazes.
The Moodys spent 8 years at Abingdon. In 1941, business was booming, and they thought it was a good time for them to pursue the dream of owning their own pottery. (https://wisconsinpottery.org/hyalyn-porcelain-company/