EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A 19th Century Make-Do Alkaline Glazed Stoneware Pitcher from Edgefield, South Carolina

Monday, June 24, 2024

A 19th Century Make-Do Alkaline Glazed Stoneware Pitcher from Edgefield, South Carolina

This is definitely a true survivor that must have one powerful story to tell! This circa 1830 alkaline glazed stoneware pitcher is marked with a prominent inscribed “X” or cross. In fact, it appears to be the same hand that applied a similar symbol on a jug that I own: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2024/04/a-19th-century-edgefield-south-carolina.html.

Nonetheless, this pitcher was possibly made by the enslaved African American potter Dave Drake (ca. 1800-1873) in Edgefield, South Carolina about 1830. Although, what is really fascinating about this object is that the handle broke at one point in the 1800s, and rather than discard of it, a highly unusual make-do handle was created using wire and some sort of metal part for the handle, possibly a type of machinery that came from the South Carolina and Georgia area (or perhaps somewhere else in the South).

I personally think that the flaws and ingenuity of this object and the fact that it was not thrown away during its early years of ownership make it unique and really a museum piece! You can even see the finger impressions on three parts of the base where the potter was holding the pitcher upside down while applying the glaze, and as a result, those three small areas were left unglazed.

For more information - see a two-page article posted below that Massachusetts potter Mark Shapiro wrote about this pitcher on pages 26-27 in the spring 2023 issue of the American Ceramics Circle Newsletter, titled, A Make-Do Edgefield Pitcher.

Note: For reference, the "X" or cross on this pitcher is not a singular characteristic used in determining a possible place of origin, seeing that this type of symbol was also used by a few potters in Bacon Level in Alabama in the 1830s and 1840s.

19th C. Make-Do Stoneware Pitcher from Edgefield, S.C.