Where did antiques dealer james carpenter first come across ohr's pottery?

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi , on July 12, Ohr's parents were German immigrants who had arrived in New Orleans around , his father had established the first blacksmith shop in Biloxi and his mother ran an early, popular grocery store there. George Ohr tried his hand at various trades before he became interested in ceramics in , while an apprentice of Joseph Fortune Meyer, a potter whose family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine like Ohr's own.

In his lifetime, Ohr claimed to have made over 20, ceramic pieces. Ten children were born to the Ohrs, but only 6 survived to adulthood. In a fire burned much of Biloxi, including Ohr's workshop. With most of his previous work destroyed, Ohr began anew and many historians consider this a turning point in his life and career, with his following work showing tremendous energy and fluidity.

Upon the destruction of his workshop and his work, he gathered the pieces that survived the fire, and although burned, he kept each piece, calling them his " burned babies". For much of his lifetime Ohr was most widely known for his eccentric self-promotion. He operated his studio as a regional attraction, calling it his "Pot-Ohr-E," and his main customers were curious tourists drawn in by his "odd-looking" workshop and numerous signs.

Who taught george ohr to work in clay

His achieved some degree of notoriety, but mixed success. In he traveled to the St. Louis World's Fair with hundreds of pieces to sell, but although people stopped to look at his pottery he wound up selling nothing. For decades after Ohr's death, his remaining pieces sat in a garage behind his sons' gas station in Biloxi. In the following years Ohr's work attracted a resurgence of attention.

Ohr's work is now seen as ground-breaking and a harbinger of the abstract sculpture and pottery that developed in the midth century, his pieces are now relatively rare and highly coveted.