Who Was John Lehman?

During ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s 2001 event in Miami, Florida, a guest named Cathy brought in an intriguing face jug that once belonged to her great-grandmother’s sister, who resided in Sylacauga, Alabama. Folk Art appraisers Ken Farmer and Carl Crossman were able to discern the identity of the jug’s maker through a small detail on the figure’s lapel buttons — the letters L-E-H-M-A-N. According to Farmer and Crossman, the letters were a hallmark of John Lehman, a relatively unknown German-born itinerant potter who lived and worked in Alabama in the latter half of the 19th century.

Little was known about John Lehman until 2016, when Joey Brackner, the leading authority on Alabama Folk Pottery at the Alabama State Council of the Arts, published an article titled “The Search for John Lehman.” Through Brackner’s article, ROADSHOW learned that Lehman was a German immigrant who came to the United States on June 4, 1847, and was naturalized in Daviess County, Kentucky, on April 14, 1859. In 1860, Lehman traveled south from Kentucky to Randolph County, Alabama, where he met his wife, Mary, while living in the home of her father, a fellow potter. In order to find work, between 1860 and 1880, Lehman traveled through the South finding work occasionally in New Orleans and Georgia. But Lehman always called Randolph County home.