From: Gary Tefft / locustent@aol.com
Location: Menomonee Falls, WI
Date: 26 Sep 1998
Time: 20:43:23
I've never believed that the "SA" pieces were Red Wing. I've never even been convinced that the decoration represented the letters "S" & "A". One of the endearing things about our friend Lyndon Viel was his enthusiasm for Red Wing, in fact, his enthusiasm for everything! I say with absolutely no disrespect that one of the things that Lyndon had great enthusiasm for was Goofey Ideas! Once he got going on one of these tracks it was imposible to talk him out of them; you had to produce abundent proof.. In no small way this trait of his was responsible for us writing and publishing Red Wing Potters & Their Wares. If it hadn't been for Lyndon's repeated challenges to prove these speculations wrong, we might not have researched so fervently and put in the effort that it took to get the book into print.
So, I cringed when Lyndon asked me whether the early city directories of Red Wing listed any potters with the initials "S.A."; I knew what was coming. Even though there was no "S.A.", there was an "A.S.", or August Sandberg, which I reluctantly reported and Lyndon was off and running. After the "SA' jars appeared in Clay Giants II, there were numerous others reported. I believe that most of these have been in the Illinois and Ohio areas, rather than Red Wing's hottest markets.
But before he died, Lyndon gave us one of the "SA" jars that he had aquired. I don't dare sell it. Not out of sentimental attachment; I have so many fond memories of Lyndon that I don'i need a dumb piece of stoneware as a memento. It's that I'm afraid that if I do sell it, Lyndon will obtain Devine Intervention to cause a signed one to show up! He's done that to me before on things that he had declaired were something that I insisted were not.
-Gary-