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Veterans Day new installation of arboretum water feature by Ben Owen III

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A large Ben Owen III pot will be installed in a new garden at the New Hanover County Arboretum on Veterans Day, November 11. The contemplation garden is being created to honor the five branches of the military. It is named for 92-year-old Durwood Baggett, a World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star. Baggett served as the county extension agent for 28 years, and was instrumental in forming the county’s Master Gardener program.

Ben Owen III’s forefathers came from England and settled in Seagrove, NC  to furnish pots, jugs and jars and other wares for the early settlers. The Owen name is one of seven listed on a historical marker along Highway 705 (Pottery Highway) recognizing the original families that brought the industry to the region in the 1700s.

Ben Owen III, named a North Carolina Living Treasure by the University of North Carolina Wilmington Museum of World Cultures in 2004, was inspired by the work of his grandfather, his namesake and mentor.

Ben Owen Sr., a master potter who worked for over 36 years at Jugtown Pottery, introduced his grandson to pottery when young Ben was just 8. By the age of 13, he was an apprentice under both his grandfather and father.

Owen’s studio sits on the site of Ben Sr.’s Old Plank Road Pottery, opened in 1959. The original shop now serves as a one-room museum, displaying family works through the years, including vases, bowls, animal figurines, and circular canteens, in addition to collected pieces. Two prizes in the collection are vases dating 1,000 and 4,000 years old created in the Gansu Province of China during the Neolithic period.

The Seagrove museum is not the only place to see Ben Sr.’s pieces. They are on display all over the world.

“Grandpa’s work is in the Louvre, the [New York] Metropolitan,” Owen says. “And there was a big donation of pottery by the Pruitt family to the Cameron Museum in Wilmington.”

His own work is prominently displayed throughout the United States, in luxury hotels like the Umstead in Raleigh and the Boston Ritz Carlton, and in several museums, including the Smithsonian. His pottery has been commissioned for politicians, sportsmen and performers, including Ronald Reagan, Arnold Palmer, Elton John, James Taylor, Bob Hope and Perry Como.

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