Face Vessel

Object Details

unknown

Description

Between the late 1600s and the Civil War, the rapid growth of the southern plantation economy and a sparse white population led to increasing reliance on the labor of enslaved blacks. Most were agricultural laborers, but a significant number were craftspeople. Among these skilled slaves were a small number of potters working in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Anecdotal and archeological evidence has been used to establish that enslaved potters were making face vessels in the Edgefield area before the Civil War.

The origins of the southern face vessel tradition are largely un-documented. Some enslaved black potters in South Carolina certainly began making face vessels in the mid 1800s, possibly inspired by African burial rituals or as charms used in religious ceremonies. The contrasting eyes and teeth on most of the slave-made face vessels are kaolin clay, a key ingredient in the manufacture of porcelain. The Edgefield area of South Carolina was known in the 1700s and 1800s for its rich supply of kaolin.

A number of face vessels have been linked stylistically to enslaved potters at Thomas Davies’ Palmetto Firebrick Works, which operated in the mid-1860s, and Lewis Miles’s Stoney Bluff and Miles Mill potteries operating from about 1837-1894. As late as 1900, ceramics historian Edwin A. Barber felt it was necessary to state that face vessels similar to these were not made in Africa, as was supposed by some collectors, but by enslaved blacks at Edgefield potteries.

This face vessel came to the Museum as part of the Van Alstyne Collection of American Folk Art. Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collected more than 300 examples of American folk art over a period of about 40 years. The name “Joe [R]anford,” written in the clay on this piece, may refer to the person depicted or to the person for whom the jug was made.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

The Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne American Folk Art Collection

mid 1800s

ID Number

CE.65.1065

catalog number

65.1065

accession number

256396

Object Name

vessel, face

Physical Description

ceramic, stoneware, coarse (overall material)

wood (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 9 in x 7 in; 22.86 cm x 17.78 cm

place made

United States: South Carolina, Edgefield

Associated Place

United States: South Carolina, Edgefield

See more items in

Cultural and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass

Cultures & Communities

Domestic Furnishings

Face Vessels

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_573764

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-2c35-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa