EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Examples of Edgefield, South Carolina Stoneware on Display at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Examples of Edgefield, South Carolina Stoneware on Display at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

I recently wrote about a large selection of southern red earthenware and stoneware that I viewed with my nephew Jason earlier this summer at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. However, this was actually our second visit to the Smithsonian in less than one year.

Last year, we spent a good amount of time at the museum's red earthenware and stoneware storage department, but we also toured the exhibits on display at the National Museum of American History. In fact, one of the first objects we saw on display was a huge alkaline-glazed stoneware jar from South Carolina, which we later learned served as inspiration for two collectors, who eventually acquired a similar object for their own personal collection.

According to the National Museum of American History, "This large alkaline-glazed stoneware jar was made in 1862 by David Drake (ca. 1801-1875), an enslaved black potter working on Lewis Miles' plantation in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. In a state that outlawed literacy among slaves, Dave definitely proclaimed his ability to read and write by signing his name and sometimes inscribing poetry on the stoneware vessels he made.

Dave was a master potter, regularly producing massive storage jars and jugs that required enormous skill and strength. About 20 surviving Dave pieces are inscribed with Dave's original two-line poems - wonderful and sometimes cryptic ruminations on topics as diverse as pots, love, money, spirituality, life as a slave, and afterlife. The poems reflect Dave's intelligence, creativity and wit."

A few weeks ago, I wrote about one of the known jars in existence inscribed with an original poem from Dave, along with three nineteenth century stoneware face jugs from the Edgefield District. These objects are currently on display in the Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. According to the MFA, "African American slaves worked in the pottery manufactories in South Carolina's Edgefield District, producing sturdy, utilitarian pots sold throughout the South. On their own time, they made distinctive face vessels. Thrown on a potter's wheel, they feature carefully added eyes and teeth shaped by hand from white kaolin clay, a practice possibly related to the use of kaolin in central African art. While their meanings and usage is unknown (and currently an ongoing research subject), new research suggests direct connections between these pots and Edgefield slaves imported in 1858 from the Congo aboard an illegal slave ship, the Wanderer.

The craftsman who signed his work "Dave" is now considered the foremost member of the group of African Americans in Edgefield, which included both slaves and, later, free blacks. Dave's thick walled storage vessels are usually large and show enormous technical skill. Dave was the only potter in this group to sign and date his work. The MFA's pot made by Dave is signed and dated "LM August 22, 1857 / Dave," and inscribed "I made this jar for Cash / though its called lucra trash."

Nonetheless, the large jar made by Dave on display at the National Museum of American History is also dated, signed and inscribed with a poem - on one side it is written, "LM May 3, 1862 / Dave," while the other side reads, "I made this jar all of cross, if you don't repent you will be lost."

The museum also displays one of the better Edgefield stoneware face jugs from the Smithsonian's collection, "(Standing only five-inches in height) This distinctive type of ceramic face vessel first appeared in the American South in the mid-1800s. Jugs such as these are attributed to a small number of black slaves working as potters in the Edgefield District. None of these skilled potters have been identified by name and their inspiration for making face vessels is unknown. Scholars speculate the vessels may have had religious or burial significance, or that they reflect the complex responses of people attempting to live and maintain their personal identities under harsh conditions."

Edgefield, SC Pottery on Display at the National Museum of American History