McCoy Pottery is highly collected and is probably the best known of American potters. The Internet has only increased its popularity. Nelson and Billie McCoy, retired from the business, are highly respected by McCoy collectors. Nelson graciously allowed me to interview him to learn more about the people behind the pottery!
AB: What is your relationship to the founders of McCoy pottery?
NELSON: My great grandfather worked in a pottery in 1848. His name was William Nelson McCoy. We have a picture of him and his wife Hester hanging in the dinning room. One of his children was James McCoy who built the J.W.McCoy pottery in Roseville, Ohio. He was my grandfather and had 6 children. One of them was Nelson McCoy, my father. He built his own pottery in 1910. I was born in 1924 to Nelson and Ruth McCoy and joined the pottery in 1948; became president in 1954 and left the company in 1981.
AB: What is it about McCoy pottery that makes it so attractive to collectors?
NELSON: My grandfather, father, and I made good, new, attractive designs. These were created by several artists. I averaged at least 50 new items a year. Other potteries used the same old items year after year. We also had 70 different glazes, and in later years we made dinnerware and sold it through the chain stores, and we used designers not just some guy in the plant.
AB: Is McCoy pottery still being manufactured today?
NELSON: To the best of my knowledge there is not any one making Nelson McCoy Pottery. There are several knock off people that still copy it.
AB: What should people know about fakes?
NELSON: This is a hard question. I hate them and the people who copy our items. It hurts our friends who are collectors. They just keep on cheating. [It's] worse than it used to be, except the copiers have gone on to Roseville and Weller and other potteries. I can spot a fake a mile away and so can other collectors that have been buying for years. The copy is usually smaller, lighter weight and poor coloring. The antique dealers know which is real and which is a fake, but they keep right on cheating the public. When I go into a store and see copies I talk real loud and say here is another fake - probably the whole store is filled with reproductions, let's leave.
AB: Do you have a personal collection of McCoy pottery? Can you tell me about it?
NELSON: I do not collect McCoy but Billie has for 30 years. She has many "one-only" pieces. She displays about 400 to 500 and the rest are in storage. She very seldom sells a piece, but has traded for something she wants and has duplicates.
AB: What is your favorite piece?
NELSON: I like the flower forms and hunting scenes. I like the big sellers while antique collectors like the scarce pieces.
AB: What do you and Billie do these days?
NELSON: After leaving the pottery we started McCoy Limited in 1983 till 1990, and we still make special items. At the present time we are making two items for the state bicentennial commission. A barn Bank with their logo, and a miniature of the first state house in 1803 as a ceramic bank. We do not manufacture anything, but do the designs, cartons, help sell and supervise production.
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There are many books on McCoy Pottery. Try this link to the search results page for McCoy Pottery on Amazon. (Because the link is so long, you will have to cut and paste the second line of the URL into your browser.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=auctionbytescom&keyword=McCoy%20Pottery&mode=blended
Note from the Editor: Avid McCoy collector Chiquita Prestwood wrote some articles for AuctionBytes 2 years ago about McCoy cookie jars and about her "Martha Stewart" experience:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abu/y200/m06/abu0015/s06#s01
http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abu/y200/m10/abu0024/s05
