Storage Jar
David Drake
1857
- Medium
- Stoneware and glaze
- Dimensions
- 45.7 × 43.2 cm (18 × 17 in.); Diam.: 43.2 cm (17 in.)
- Genre
- container
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
19th centuryglazeAmerican Arts and Crafts Movementstoragealkaline glazevesselceramicsamerican decorative artscontainerstudio potterypotterydecorative artsthrowing (pottery technique)incisinghand-building (pottery technique)pottery glazingstoneware
About
This boldly inscribed storage jar was made by David Drake, who was born enslaved around 1800 and learned the art of hand-coiling, throwing, and glazing pottery in Edgefield, South Carolina. “LM” stands for Lewis Miles, Drake’s enslaver and owner of the Stoney Bluff Manufactory, part of the plantation where the potter labored from around 1849 to the 1860s. Drake was not the only artisan active in Edgefield, and his audacious works represent artistry, skill, and resilience at a time when enslaved people faced criminalization and violence for reading, writing, or even signing one’s name.