Mike Lee is one of several collectors of Stockton pottery exhibiting pieces from the historical Lanier County potteries in the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

VALDOSTA — Shimuel Timmerman and Glover Foreman approached pottery from a business perspective.

Scribbling the numeral “5” on the side of a five-gallon clay jug may look rustic chic to the modern eye, but it was as practical to late 19th and early 20th sensibilities as the “5 Gal.” wording stamped on the mass-produced, plastic gas cans of the 21st century.

A reinforced neck may look aesthetically pleasing, but it ensured that the use and reuse of cork stoppers did not damage the jug. The rimmed opening of a jar may appear decorative, but it ensured a looped string would stay in place as it fastened a piece of cloth in covering the opening.

The stamp “J.P. Cox, Madison, Fl.,” speaks of some mystery from the past, but it was likely placed on a merchant jug so the vessel could be returned to the business of J.P. Cox in Madison, Fla., when its contents had been emptied.

A list of numbers reveals some arcane arithmetic down the side of one jug, but it is likely an “end of day jug” or “tally jug” denoting how many pieces had been fired on some given day between 1880 through 1910 in the two potteries once housed in Stockton in what is now Lanier County. Apparently, 504 pieces were fired on the day this tally jug was fired.

Timmerman and Foreman created jugs, bowls, jars, churns, coffee pots, and other items for daily use throughout South Georgia and beyond. They were businessmen who mass-produced these items hoping homes and businesses near and far would find uses for their fired clays.

It is unknown if Timmerman or Foreman ever imagined collectors seeking and paying thousands of dollars to display their works in gallery exhibits such as the one on display at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

It is unknown if either of the businessmen would have ever imagined their works as exhibited works of art rather than housewares for storing water or liquor, or churning butter, or serving thirsty and hungry folks.

Mike Lee has been collecting Stockton pottery for the past several years. A member of the Lanier County Historical Society, he said the society sought something that uniquely celebrated Lanier County’s identity. The surviving vessels of the separate Timmerman and Foreman potteries accomplished the task.

Lee and several other collectors, including Bonnie Hall, Mike Johnson, Dewey Elsberry, Cody Bennett, Ronnie Gaskins, Julia Steed of the Lanier County Historical Society, and a private collector wishing to remain anonymous, are showing 73 examples of the Stockton pottery in the Turner Center show.

The majority of the pieces are from the Timmerman pottery. As Bill Shenton, arts center curator, explained, the Timmerman Jug Company stamped its alkaline glazed stoneware with a distinctive “T” for Timmerman.

This “T” has served as a Rosetta stone for identifying Timmerman pottery, Shenton said. The Foreman pottery had no distinctive stamp, though its products included signature traits such as the mushroom shape of the spout, Lee said.

Collectors continue finding Stockton pottery throughout Georgia and the South. They find the pieces in conditions ranging from what appears to be fresh from the kiln more than a century later to mounds of “T”-stamped shards located near the Timmerman pottery’s site along the clay banks of Stockton.

They find them in expected places such as estate sales and auctions. They find them in unexpected places, too.

Lee tells of pieces discovered where people were using them recently as ashtrays, or places to store nails. He tells of one piece missing the lip because a grandmother used the rim to sharpen her knives.

People originally purchasing Timmerman and Foreman pottery weren’t making an artistic investment. They were buying housewares for home use. Jugs were chipped. Coffee pots cracked.

They suffered wear and tear as surely as the dishes and plates purchased for 21st century home use. Unlike modern consumers, the century-old jugs were not considered disposable. A few of the pieces show signs of repair — a reattached coffee pot spout, a bolt used to stop a hole on the side of a jug.

While the uses of the Stockton pottery are known, little is known about the men behind their making.

Timmerman and Foreman both traveled from the Edgefield District of South Carolina to open shop in Stockton.

Why they chose to both come from the Carolinas to the same swampy, gnat-infested area remains unknown, but it was likely for the easy access to rich, available Georgia clay.

No one is even certain if Timmerman or Foreman were “turners” — the name for potters who turned clay — prior to arriving in Stockton, notes James R. Cormany in his book, “The Pottery of Stockton: South Georgia’s Only Jugtown,” which is also available at the arts center.

Though from the same area and opening shops in the same transplanted town, they differed in their pottery designs. They hired turners who created items that fit within the design of the individual pottery. Though they sought to sell their items for use, they likely had the craftsman’s sense of pride for creating well-designed products, Shenton said.

“Interestingly, the first two shops in Stockton turned different forms of pottery,” writes Cormany. “Whether or not this was some type of ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between Foreman and Timmerman is unknown, but makes for interesting speculation.”

Cormany’s book answers as many of the questions possible about Timmerman and Foreman, but the evidence of their work continues being discovered in places throughout the region and now in the well-lighted environment of art galleries.

GALLERY

Historic Pottery of Lanier County is on exhibit at the Howard Gallery; along with Deborah Baird’s “Organica: Photographic Visions,” Josette’s Gallery; Don Penny, Recent Works, Price-Campbell Foundation Gallery; Allison Watson, “Mother’s Gardens,” Sallie & Harmon Boyette Gallery; Valdosta People’s Choice Photo Contest, Tillman Gallery; “Art Explorations,” student exhibition, Roberta George Gallery.

Where: Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, 527 N. Patterson St.

When: The show runs through July 29.

Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed, Saturday and Sunday.

Admission: Free.

More information: Call (229) 247-2787; or visit www.turnercenter.org.