DESCRIPTION
H. Leslie Moody and Frances Johnson Moody never owned the company outright, but their dreams shaped North Carolina’s Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc. and drove it forward to the satisfaction of an emerging, increasingly modern post-World War II America.
Hyalyn’s reputation for high quality led to its association with top designers like Michael and Rosemary Lax, Eva Zeisel, Georges Briard, Charles Leslie Fordyce, Herbert Cohen, Erwin Kalla, and Esta Brodey.
Before moving to North Carolina in 1945, ceramic engineer and designer Less Moody prepared to organize and operate Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc. From Zanesville’s Mosaic Tile Company, Ohio State University’s ceramics department, Love Field Pottery, Abingdon Pottery, San José Potteries, and Rookwood Pottery, he gained expertise in clay formulation, glaze chemistry, product design, plant operation, project planning, advertising, and employee management.
With the aid of investors, his dream came true when, in 1946, Hyalyn’s first lamp bases and flower containers emerged from the shop’s tunnel kiln. Thoroughly documented and illustrated with 425 images, hyalyn: America’s Finest Porcelain is a complete history of Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc., and its successors, Hyalyn Cosco, Hyalyn, Ltd., and Vanguard Studios.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Following his introduction to North Carolina's pottery scene while working as a small town newspaper photographer in the 1970s, Stephen C. Compton was on the path to becoming one of the region's top pottery collectors and noted experts on the subject. An eighth generation North Carolinian, Steve's interests include the state's 18th and 19th century earthenware and stoneware traditions, as well as its early to mid-20th century art potteries, and how these traditions inform the work of hundreds of the state's contemporary clay artists today.
