Lanier Meaders | Also Known As: (Quillian)

Quillian Lanier Meaders widely known as Lanier Meadersused locally sourced stoneware clay and glaze materials including wood ash and lime. He is also known to use Albany Slip. He produced a wide ...
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    Biography

    Quillian Lanier Meaders widely known as Lanier Meadersused locally sourced stoneware clay and glaze materials including wood ash and lime. He is also known to use Albany Slip. He produced a wide variety of functional picecs as well as the face jugs his family is so well known for.

    He was born into the Meaders family pottery tradition. The Meaders family pottery was founded by Lanier?s grandfather, John Milton Meaders in 1893. He began the family face jug production making 1000s in addition to a full line of functional pottery. Lanier?s father Cheever produced a small number of face jugs.

    Meaders learned to make and use glazes growing up in a family of functional potters and face jug makers. Throughout his career, he produced work using these traditional glazes which produced strong earth-brown, olive-green, and rusty-gray stoneware.

    Lanier Meaders can be credited with keeping the Southern folk pottery making of Georgia alive and vital with his distinct style and sculptural creativity shown both in his traditional functional pottery and face jugs which utilize stones for teeth.

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    Apprenticeships & Residencies
    Primary Work Experience

    Family pottery-studio worker

    1967—

    became fulltime potter

    Instructor Brenau College, Gainesville, Georgia

    Other

    Public Collections

    Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

    Georgia State Art Collection, Atlanta, Georgia

    Southern Highland Craft Guild, Asheville, North Carolina

    Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC

    Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

    Bibliography

    Eaton, Allen H. Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1937/1973.

    Crocker, Michael A., Cheever Meaders, Arie Meaders, Lanier Meaders, and W. Newton, Crouch Jr. The Folk Pottery of Cheever, Arie, and Lanier Meaders: A Pictorial Legacy. Griffin, GA: C & C Productions, 1994. 

    Diaz, Laura.  “Lanier Meaders (1917-1998).” New Georgia Encyclopedia, January 14, 2016.

    Meaders, Cheever, and Lanier Meaders. The Meaders Family: North Georgia Potters. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 2008. 

    Meaders, Lanier, and Joan Falconer Byrd. A Conversation with Lanier Meaders:  Chelsea Gallery, A.K. Hinds University Center, Western Carolina University. Cullowhee, NC:  Western Carolina University,1980. 

    Quillan Lanier Meaders, The Meaders Family, North Georgia Potters. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Folklife Studies, 1967.

    CV or Resume

    Website(s)
    Tags (related topics)

    Southern Highland Craft Guild, Center for Craft Creativity and Design, Face Jug

    Citation: Lanier Meaders, "The Marks Project."
    Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/lanier-meaders

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