Work of Art

Storage Jar

Created

1857

Artist

Nationality

American

Birth/Death

circa 1801-1870s

Dimensions

Height and circumference: 17 × 49 inches (43.2 × 124.5 centimeters)

Medium

Alkaline-glazed stoneware, Ceramic

Credit

Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)

Object Number

2023.19.1

Culture

Classification

Ceramic

Department

American to 1910

Key Ideas

This is an example of alkaline-glazed stoneware. It was made by hand on a potter’s wheel, a machine that potters use to shape clay into round, ceramic objects.
This ceramic jar is nearly two feet tall. It was most likely used to store food or cooking ingredients.
The artist known as Dave was an enslaved person and skilled artisan who made pottery and wrote poetry. He lived and worked in the Edgefield region of South Carolina, where the tradition of making alkaline-glazed stoneware began.
Dave is best known for creating large ceramic storage jars and jugs. He was the first enslaved potter to inscribe his work.
When Dave created this stoneware vessel, it was illegal for enslaved people to read and write. He rebelled against these laws by writing on his pottery. His work is considered to be a creative act of resistance.

Learn More

This large ceramic jar was most likely used to store meat or lard (animal fat used for cooking). It is a type of pottery known as alkaline-glazed stoneware. Alkaline glazing is produced by mixing clay (or clay and sand) with wood ashes or lime. These materials give the pottery an earthy brown or yellowish green color. The tradition of making alkaline-glazed stoneware originated in the early 1800s, in the Edgefield region of South Carolina. This rural area is famous for its natural clays.

To create alkaline-glazed stoneware, a potter shapes a clay vessel on a potter’s wheel and then fires it at a high temperature. The extreme heat gives the clay a glasslike quality and fuses the glaze. This makes the pottery waterproof and durable.

The potter and poet known as Dave (David Drake) was one of thousands of enslaved artisans whose work was stolen by merchant enslavers before and during the Civil War. Dave was a skilled potter who made finely crafted ceramic storage jars and jugs. In the mid 1800s, he worked in pottery studios in South Carolina’s Edgefield region. At that time it was illegal there, and in many other states, for enslaved people to read and write. Dave expressed his resistance to the system of slavery by inscribing Bible verses, short poems, and his name on his handmade pottery. He was the earliest-known enslaved potter to inscribe his work. The inscription on Storage Jar includes his name and the date (May 29, 1857) on which he created this vessel.

Dave created thousands of ceramic pottery pieces. Each jar and jug he crafted featured his name or a unique verse. Only 270 of his original pottery pieces still exist.

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