hi i was wandering does any one here keep the broken pottery thay find or am i the only one.i live in the anna illinois area famouse for its pottery and i have a few hundred poulds of broken pottery i have kept.
I have several stoneware restorers who regularly check in to see what broken pottery I've carted home. Any decent piece (by that I mean marked, decorated or unusual form) that has 70-80% of its pieces comes home, rarer pieces can be missing half or more of the pieces and still pays to cart 'em out. Also all the handles, ears, tops & c. Some times I might make only a few bucks, other times (& it has happened more than I care to admit,lol) the busted stoneware brought more than the bottles that were found. Over the course of a digging season it really adds up.
I've always kept mine. I haven't gotten anything great yet but one of the shards goes to a crock that's worth over $800. I've gotten a lot of nice blue pieces. Birds, flowers and such. If you can't find enough of it to put it together then they still make nice garden pieces. Swiz
I save any pottery will interesting design or wording. Finding alot of jug tops and crock covers but still waiting to find a whole one. I use them as decorative "fillers" in my bottle collection.