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Period: 700 BCE to
Dinkho Tsa Badimo "Ancestral Vessels"
Many African tribes utilize ceramic vessels in rituals and ceremonies. The Sotho people of Botswana are one of them. It is believed that Sotho families use these vessels to "engage their ancestors" by offering traditional beers to the vessel in which certain ancestors are stored. As a sign of respect, only the eldest in the family is allowed to handle the vessel.
https://www.pharosjot.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/theme_4_article_13_se1_hoeane___mcginn_making_a_case.pdf -
Anti-slavery punch bowl
A punch bowl found in Staffordshire, England. Made with white salt-glazed stoneware with overglaze polychrome enamels. -
Period: to
Anti-Slavery ceramic art
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Period: to
Dave the Slave
Also known as: Dave the Potter, David Drake. Dave the Slave was an African American artist known for both his literacy and his ceramic art. He created jugs on a pottery wheel, signing and dating them. He often expressed himself through poetry on his jugs, his own way of rebelling in an era where Africans were not allowed to read and write. Throughout his life, Dave is said to have made over 40,000 jugs. He was taught this skill while working in a slave community that solely made pottery. -
H. Wilson & Company Stoneware Jug
1/2 gallon whiskey jug. 1857. Huntsville, Texas. source: https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/wilson-pottery-spotlight-022715 -
Period: to
Wilsons Pottery
Pre-abolition, 3 slaves were taught the art of pottery by a professional hired by their slave master. From there, those pots were sold widely throughout the South for their master's economic gain. After slavery was abolished, the Wilson brothers started their own pottery business, becoming the first African American entrepreneurs in the state of Texas. There are roughly 1,000 known pieces existing today that are prized by collectors. https://www.seguin.k12.tx.us/page/article/867 -
Dave the Slave - "I wonder where is all my relations"
This stoneware pot made by Dave the Slave reads: I wonder where is all my relations / Friendship to all all every nation."
This poem is an ode to the breaking up of slave families through buying and selling. source: https://gcma.org/david-drake/ -
Dave the Slave - "I made this jar for cash, though it is called lucre trash."
This particular stoneware jug reads: "I made this jar for cash / though it is called lucre trash" Sources say that these large storage jars were likely made to be used for storing meat. source: https://www.baystatebanner.com/2020/06/18/etched-in-clay-the-poem-vessels-of-enslaved-potter-david-drake/ -
Face Jugs
Face jugs appeared in Edgeville, SC, after a slave ship illegally shipped 400+ Africans to the New World in 1858. Face jugs appeared after that event; historians believe that this tradition may have been brought over from Congo. Their origins are unknown-some believe they served as water or alcohol jugs, others think that they served as gravemarkers since slaves were not allowed proper graves after death. http://river.chattanoogastate.edu/orientations/ex-learn-obj/Face_Jugs/Face_Jugs_print.html -
Dave the Slave additional piece
This particular stoneware vessel is 62 cm in height, the inscription, reads: “I saw a leopard & a lions face/ then I felt the need—of grace.” source: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramics-monthly-article/Enslaved-and-Freed-African-American-Potters# -
Period: to
Lady Kwali
Lady Kwali was a Nigerian potter born in the village of Kwali. She grew up hand-building pottery, as it was a skill and occupation passed down from generations of women. Through traditional means of hand-digging clay out of the ground and coil-building, Lady Kwali made a name for herself due to her exceptionality. source: http://modernmag.com/tradition-and-imagination-the-remarkable-pottery-of-ladi-kwali-at-the-skoto-gallery/ -
Period: to
Doyle Lane
Doyle Lane was a famous black ceramicist known for his "innovative, tactile glaze techniques." His glazing and uniformity in his pieces are sought after by collectors to this day. Throughout his life, he was entirely self-sufficient strictly selling his art, which is a massive achievement for not only an African American man in the mid to late 1900s but as an artist in general. source: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramics-monthly-article/Doyle-Lane-Weed-Pots-259026# -
Weed Pots - Doyle Lane
Doyle Lane working in his studio in El Sereno, California, ca. 1976.
Weed pots were made for storing single-stemmed flowers, herbs, or "weeds." The small opening at the top, the texture of the pots, and the masterful glaze techniques of these pots set them aside from others.
source: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramics-monthly-article/Doyle-Lane-Weed-Pots-259026# -
Face Jugs remade!
Jim McDowell, "The Black Potter" (1987-present), is a black ceramicist who brought back the art of face jugs. He has been creating face jugs for the past 35 years, and he is a descendant of a woman named Evangeline who was a slave potter in Jamaica - specializing in face jugs. There are theories that face jugs could have been designed in such a way to mimic the racist judgements that black people endured through time. He continues to make face jugs to "keep the story alive."