A Rare North or South Carolina “Colored Republicing Club” Stoneware Cooler
Dated July 7, 1892
in Southern alkaline glaze, with distinctive doubled collared rim, tooled body, two lug handles set low on the body of the jar and the neck inscribed in flowing script Colored Republicing [sic] Club July 7, 1892. Height 12 3/4 inches.
Likely made by an African American potter, perhaps trained in the Edgefield District of South Carolina.
At the time this cooler was made, the power of the Black Republican vote in the south and nationally was on the decline, and Reconstruction was a rapidly fading promise. In the South, Jim Crow was squarely in the headlights. In 1892, there were 161 lynchings of African Americans, the most recorded between the beginning of Reconstruction and World War II. In the face of near continual assaults on their right to vote, this cooler represents the continued hope and unfulfilled dreams of the more than 4 million formerly enslaved.
After the Civil War, white Southerners aligned themselves with the Democratic party, while African Americans chose their liberators, the Republicans. In post war North Carolina, for example, more than half the Republican Party were Freedmen. In both North and South Carolina, in the years immediately following the War, “Republican Clubs,” or “Union Leagues” were formed, and with suffrage, African Americans began to take on larger roles in local, state, and national politics. This new-found influence was short-lived as white Democrats in both states moved quickly to suppress the vote of blacks. The cooler offered here is symbolic of a period in Southern politics when African Americans became increasingly disenfranchised from the suffrage granted them by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. Almost from the beginning of Reconstruction the National Republican party recognized the importance of the African American vote in the South and urged the formation of “colored clubs” as a means of communicating to the largely illiterate population of freedmen. The June 22, 1867, edition of the Raleigh, North Carolina Tri-Weekly Standard, for example, carried a front-page story urging African Americans “…to be so organized that you will act as one man, lest your enemy gain victory. You should organize Union Leagues and Republican Clubs.” Accompanying the article was a proposed Constitution for these clubs specifying that officers should be elected in January and July. An online search for “Republican Club,” “Colored Republican Club” and “Negro Republican Club” in North Carolina newspapers from the latter part of the 1860s until 1892 (the date of the cooler offered here) suggests such organizations were present in many portions of the state, including Hendersonville, Salisbury, New Bern, Wilmington, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Asheville. Based upon this sample, it is likely Republican Clubs were common statewide, in both large and smaller towns. A similar pattern is covered in the papers of South Carolina. Clubs were apparently present throughout the state, and in 1878 a “colored Republican club” boasted 1900 members. The date July 7, 1892, inscribed on the neck of the cooler offered here probably reflects a meeting where officers of the “Colored Republicans” were elected. Newspaper accounts from 1890 suggest that African Americans were still adhering to the Constitution first suggested in 1867. The Greensboro North State, for example, reported in the July 3, 1890, edition that the “Independent Republican Club, a negro organization formed in this city some time ago” will hold a “district convention sometime during the present month.” The July 30th edition of the Wilmington Morning Star reported that the First Ward Colored Republicans met on July 22 and “reorganized with a full slate of officers.”
By the time of the 1892 national election, the voting rights of African Americans throughout the South was under assault by whites in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Fear of “negro rule” gave way to the concept of “lily white” party membership, with the stated goal of disenfranchising Black voters in a majority of Dixie. Even nationally, the Republican party had begun to turn its back on Freedmen. At the National convention held in Minneapolis in June, Black delegates from Alabama were not seated in favor of an all-white delegation. The 100 African American delegates to the convention could not even manage to have a resolution renouncing lynching adopted in the party platform (Nathanson, 2008). Alkaline-glazed stoneware is a uniquely Southern product. Small quantities of it were produced in southwestern Virginia and Tennessee. More of it was made in North Carolina – particularly in the state’s Catawba Valley region and mountainous Buncombe County near Asheville – and in South Carolina’s Edgefield District and other locales. Alkaline glazes were also employed in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Regardless of its maker, the cooler’s alkaline glaze clearly identifies it as the product of a Southern potter. The Republican affiliation expressed on the shoulder suggests the potter was an African American. The water cooler’s double rim, or collar, may be its most telling feature. Rarely seen on North Carolina alkaline-glazed stoneware jars, it is frequently found on vessels associated with South Carolina’s Edgefield District – or those potters who were trained in the District. Double collars routinely appear on vessels produced by the enslaved Edgefield potter Dave Drake and turners at the Lewis Miles, Collin Rhodes and B.F. Landrum potteries. At the northern edge of the district near Kirksey’s Crossroads, similar rims were produced at the Chandler potteries. Both white and black potters worked at each of these potteries, with white itinerants probably moving freely between them. At the end of the Civil War, this pattern was likely accelerated as Freedmen left their bondsmen and struck off on their own either to work as paid laborers or to start their own potteries, taking the technique with them. The double rim, for example, is found on wares made by Edgefield-born and trained Texas potter, John Leopard. South Carolina-trained potter, T. B. Odom, added double rims to his jars made in Florida at his Knox Hill pottery and later at his pottery in Upshur County, Texas. Similar rims are found on jars produced at South Carolina’s Bodie pottery. Bodie potters made “well-formed ovoid jars, churns, and storage jars and unusual forms such as flasks and figural bottles … Bodie jars typically [had] two opposing horizontal slab handles and a collared neck with a flared rim.” (Baldwin 1993:104). In 1870, Bodie employed at least two freed black potters, Lee Rodgers and Shep Davis. After the War, Lewis Miles leased one of his Edgefield potteries to three of his former slaves, namely Willis Harrison, Pharaoh Jones, and Mark Miles. (Todd 2008:NP) Others, like Scott and Moss Miles, who may have been Lewis Miles’ former slaves, reportedly worked at the B.F. Landrum pottery. Freed slaves Peter and Oliver Miles may have worked at the Seigler pottery shop. (Horne 1990:80). Former slave Josh Miles owned and operated an Edgefield pottery – perhaps the only one of its kind. (Horne 1990:81) Other black South Carolina potters known to have continued producing wares following emancipation include Jack Thurman, Milage Williams, and Thomas Jones. Ben Landrum’s shop remained in operation until 1902 when it closed due to the fact that his old turners had died. (Baldwin 1993:97) To the north, the interplay between Edgefield and North Carolina potters producing alkaline glazed ware began early, with potters arriving in the Buncombe County area via the Saluda Gap Road as early as the 1820s. In the Piedmont, the concept of alkaline glaze may have been introduced in the Lincoln and Catawba counties by Edgefield-trained potters as early as the 1840s (Baldwin 1993:62-63). Given this evidence, we suggest that the cooler might have been made by a potter trained in Edgefield. The shape and distinctive body tooling, however, is unique, and as far as we have been able to determine, previously not recorded in either South or North Carolina stoneware. It is basically a modified keg shape, replete with tooling to represent the cane binding. Baldwin (1993:175) reports that both small and large kegs were made in North Carolina. Sylvanus Hartsoe of Catawba County made alkaline glazed kegs, and they appear to have been made at the Jugtown pottery of John Leonard Atkins in Greenville County, South Carolina where the form was probably introduced from North Carolina. Based upon these observations, we suggest that the cooler was made in the Piedmont or Western Mountains of North Carolina, or in South Carolina’s Jugtown area, or elsewhere in the upstate part of that state. Hindman is grateful for the contribution to this description by North Carolina ceramic scholar Stephen Compton.
References Cited
Baldwin, Cinda K. 1993. Great and Noble Jar: Traditional Stoneware of South Carolina. The University of Georgia Press.
Horne, Catherine Wilson, ed. 1990. Crossroads of Clay: The Southern Alkaline-glazed Stoneware Tradition. Columbia, S.C.: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina
Nathanson, Iric. 2008. “African Americans and the 1892 Republican National Convention.” Minnesota History, 61(2):76-82.
Todd, Leonard. 2008. Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008), NP.
Rare Edgefield Stoneware Face Jug: Edgefield District, South Carolina, circa 1860-1880, dark speckled olive green glaze over body, applied facial features including bulging white pierced kaolin eyes inset in pronounced eyelids, pinched down turned nose, open mouth with impressed kaolin teeth, elongated eyebrows at top of head, pronounced scroll form ears with rounded tragi, delicate tooling of rim spout, applied strap handle at back of jug, 3-1/2 in. - Note: Possibly made at the Davies Pottery, consensus indicates these vessels were made by skilled African American potters of the period influenced by Coastal Central African culture, specifically the Kongo tribes people brought to the area. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and firing anomalies as made, firing separation under lower lip, kiln debris on lower lip, minor 1/2 in. loss to right kaolin eye as made, small 1/4 in. glaze chip to back of ear, otherwise good condition
A Rare North or South Carolina “Colored Republicing Club” Stoneware Cooler
Dated July 7, 1892
in Southern alkaline glaze, with distinctive doubled collared rim, tooled body, two lug handles set low on the body of the jar and the neck inscribed in flowing script Colored Republicing [sic] Club July 7, 1892. Height 12 3/4 inches.
Likely made by an African American potter, perhaps trained in the Edgefield District of South Carolina.
At the time this cooler was made, the power of the Black Republican vote in the south and nationally was on the decline, and Reconstruction was a rapidly fading promise. In the South, Jim Crow was squarely in the headlights. In 1892, there were 161 lynchings of African Americans, the most recorded between the beginning of Reconstruction and World War II. In the face of near continual assaults on their right to vote, this cooler represents the continued hope and unfulfilled dreams of the more than 4 million formerly enslaved.
After the Civil War, white Southerners aligned themselves with the Democratic party, while African Americans chose their liberators, the Republicans. In post war North Carolina, for example, more than half the Republican Party were Freedmen. In both North and South Carolina, in the years immediately following the War, “Republican Clubs,” or “Union Leagues” were formed, and with suffrage, African Americans began to take on larger roles in local, state, and national politics. This new-found influence was short-lived as white Democrats in both states moved quickly to suppress the vote of blacks. The cooler offered here is symbolic of a period in Southern politics when African Americans became increasingly disenfranchised from the suffrage granted them by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. Almost from the beginning of Reconstruction the National Republican party recognized the importance of the African American vote in the South and urged the formation of “colored clubs” as a means of communicating to the largely illiterate population of freedmen. The June 22, 1867, edition of the Raleigh, North Carolina Tri-Weekly Standard, for example, carried a front-page story urging African Americans “…to be so organized that you will act as one man, lest your enemy gain victory. You should organize Union Leagues and Republican Clubs.” Accompanying the article was a proposed Constitution for these clubs specifying that officers should be elected in January and July. An online search for “Republican Club,” “Colored Republican Club” and “Negro Republican Club” in North Carolina newspapers from the latter part of the 1860s until 1892 (the date of the cooler offered here) suggests such organizations were present in many portions of the state, including Hendersonville, Salisbury, New Bern, Wilmington, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Asheville. Based upon this sample, it is likely Republican Clubs were common statewide, in both large and smaller towns. A similar pattern is covered in the papers of South Carolina. Clubs were apparently present throughout the state, and in 1878 a “colored Republican club” boasted 1900 members. The date July 7, 1892, inscribed on the neck of the cooler offered here probably reflects a meeting where officers of the “Colored Republicans” were elected. Newspaper accounts from 1890 suggest that African Americans were still adhering to the Constitution first suggested in 1867. The Greensboro North State, for example, reported in the July 3, 1890, edition that the “Independent Republican Club, a negro organization formed in this city some time ago” will hold a “district convention sometime during the present month.” The July 30th edition of the Wilmington Morning Star reported that the First Ward Colored Republicans met on July 22 and “reorganized with a full slate of officers.”
By the time of the 1892 national election, the voting rights of African Americans throughout the South was under assault by whites in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Fear of “negro rule” gave way to the concept of “lily white” party membership, with the stated goal of disenfranchising Black voters in a majority of Dixie. Even nationally, the Republican party had begun to turn its back on Freedmen. At the National convention held in Minneapolis in June, Black delegates from Alabama were not seated in favor of an all-white delegation. The 100 African American delegates to the convention could not even manage to have a resolution renouncing lynching adopted in the party platform (Nathanson, 2008). Alkaline-glazed stoneware is a uniquely Southern product. Small quantities of it were produced in southwestern Virginia and Tennessee. More of it was made in North Carolina – particularly in the state’s Catawba Valley region and mountainous Buncombe County near Asheville – and in South Carolina’s Edgefield District and other locales. Alkaline glazes were also employed in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Regardless of its maker, the cooler’s alkaline glaze clearly identifies it as the product of a Southern potter. The Republican affiliation expressed on the shoulder suggests the potter was an African American. The water cooler’s double rim, or collar, may be its most telling feature. Rarely seen on North Carolina alkaline-glazed stoneware jars, it is frequently found on vessels associated with South Carolina’s Edgefield District – or those potters who were trained in the District. Double collars routinely appear on vessels produced by the enslaved Edgefield potter Dave Drake and turners at the Lewis Miles, Collin Rhodes and B.F. Landrum potteries. At the northern edge of the district near Kirksey’s Crossroads, similar rims were produced at the Chandler potteries. Both white and black potters worked at each of these potteries, with white itinerants probably moving freely between them. At the end of the Civil War, this pattern was likely accelerated as Freedmen left their bondsmen and struck off on their own either to work as paid laborers or to start their own potteries, taking the technique with them. The double rim, for example, is found on wares made by Edgefield-born and trained Texas potter, John Leopard. South Carolina-trained potter, T. B. Odom, added double rims to his jars made in Florida at his Knox Hill pottery and later at his pottery in Upshur County, Texas. Similar rims are found on jars produced at South Carolina’s Bodie pottery. Bodie potters made “well-formed ovoid jars, churns, and storage jars and unusual forms such as flasks and figural bottles … Bodie jars typically [had] two opposing horizontal slab handles and a collared neck with a flared rim.” (Baldwin 1993:104). In 1870, Bodie employed at least two freed black potters, Lee Rodgers and Shep Davis. After the War, Lewis Miles leased one of his Edgefield potteries to three of his former slaves, namely Willis Harrison, Pharaoh Jones, and Mark Miles. (Todd 2008:NP) Others, like Scott and Moss Miles, who may have been Lewis Miles’ former slaves, reportedly worked at the B.F. Landrum pottery. Freed slaves Peter and Oliver Miles may have worked at the Seigler pottery shop. (Horne 1990:80). Former slave Josh Miles owned and operated an Edgefield pottery – perhaps the only one of its kind. (Horne 1990:81) Other black South Carolina potters known to have continued producing wares following emancipation include Jack Thurman, Milage Williams, and Thomas Jones. Ben Landrum’s shop remained in operation until 1902 when it closed due to the fact that his old turners had died. (Baldwin 1993:97) To the north, the interplay between Edgefield and North Carolina potters producing alkaline glazed ware began early, with potters arriving in the Buncombe County area via the Saluda Gap Road as early as the 1820s. In the Piedmont, the concept of alkaline glaze may have been introduced in the Lincoln and Catawba counties by Edgefield-trained potters as early as the 1840s (Baldwin 1993:62-63). Given this evidence, we suggest that the cooler might have been made by a potter trained in Edgefield. The shape and distinctive body tooling, however, is unique, and as far as we have been able to determine, previously not recorded in either South or North Carolina stoneware. It is basically a modified keg shape, replete with tooling to represent the cane binding. Baldwin (1993:175) reports that both small and large kegs were made in North Carolina. Sylvanus Hartsoe of Catawba County made alkaline glazed kegs, and they appear to have been made at the Jugtown pottery of John Leonard Atkins in Greenville County, South Carolina where the form was probably introduced from North Carolina. Based upon these observations, we suggest that the cooler was made in the Piedmont or Western Mountains of North Carolina, or in South Carolina’s Jugtown area, or elsewhere in the upstate part of that state. Hindman is grateful for the contribution to this description by North Carolina ceramic scholar Stephen Compton.
References Cited
Baldwin, Cinda K. 1993. Great and Noble Jar: Traditional Stoneware of South Carolina. The University of Georgia Press.
Horne, Catherine Wilson, ed. 1990. Crossroads of Clay: The Southern Alkaline-glazed Stoneware Tradition. Columbia, S.C.: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina
Nathanson, Iric. 2008. “African Americans and the 1892 Republican National Convention.” Minnesota History, 61(2):76-82.
Todd, Leonard. 2008. Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008), NP.
Three Pieces of Edgefield Stoneware: Edgefield stoneware bowl, light tan glaze, angled body, rounded rim, possibly made at Pottersville, circa 1820's, 5-1/2 x 11 in. ; large jug with light tan glaze over clay body, rounded form, inscribed "3" on shoulder, applied strap handle, flared rim, possibly attributed to a Landrum Pottery, 15 in. ; storage jar, light brownish green alkaline glaze, lopsided form, two possible "slash" marks to base edge and shoulder near handle, possibly two at handle, two possible punctates at shoulder, possibly attributed to Dave at Landrum Pottery, circa 1840, 11 in. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, bowl with 5-1/2 in hairline up side to rim, hairline around 2/3 of the bowl's base, residue to interior and exterior, attempt to repair 1 in. chip to glaze at side of bowl, jug with tape residue to exterior, otherwise good condition, jar with restorations to rim and side of jar at one handle, several chips around interior of rim, 21 in. hairlines to rim, base edge wear, glaze hairline under one handle, several areas of illumination under blacklight to front of jar likely due to residue, interior of jar with some clay body losses
Rare Edgefield Stoneware Face Jug (Edgefield District, South Carolina, 1860s), dark olive green alkaline glaze over body, applied facial features including contrasting white bulging kaolin eyes inside pronounced eyelids, pinched down turned nose, large open mouth with impressed kaolin tooth design, eyebrows angling to back of head over large pronounced scroll form ears with small pointed tragi, thick squarish form rim at spout, applied strap handle at back of head, possibly attributed to the Davies Pottery, consensus indicates production of these vessels was undertaken by working African slaves of the period, 4-1/2 in..
TWO EDGEFIELD STONEWARE CHURNStall speckled brown alkaline glazed churn, arched lug handles at shoulder, flared rim with lid shelf in interior, possibly attributed to a Landrum pottery, 14-3/4 in.; light matte green alkaline glazed churn, thin arched lug handles at shoulder, two slash marks at rear shoulder, small rim with lid shelf, 13-3/4 in.,
Provenance: Private Edgefield, South Carolina Collection
Condition:
glaze voids and anomalies as made, abrasions to exteriors, tall churn with 2 in. rim loss and various other smaller losses, 1/2 in. chip to one handle and other minor chips to both handles, star crack to lower body with 2-1/2 in. lengths, hairline to rim and handle, smaller churn with losses to entire edges both handles, 3/4 in. clay body void, 1 in. loss to glaze on body, restored rim
Thomas Chandler Attributed Edgefield Stoneware Jar: likely made at Trapp and Chandler Pottery, Kirksey's Crossroads, Edgefield District, late 1840's, iron slip swag decoration to front and back shoulder of jar, looping iron slip decoration under lug handles at side of jar, ridged neck, rounded rim, 14 in. ÿ - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition entirely pieced back together, stabilized hairline cracks throughout, there don't appear to be any restorations to clay body anywhere on the piece, glaze voids and anomalies as made
Edgefield stoneware bowl, two lug handles, medium alkaline glaze with brown speckles, attributed to Landrum-Stork Pottery, Edgefield District, South Carolina, 1830s-1860s, 5-1/4 x 14-1/2 in. Rim and handle chips, old 4 in. rim crack. John Burrison Collection.
Edgefield Dave Drake Stoneware Jug: (Dave Drake, Edgefield, South Carolina, b. circa 1800's d. after 1873) this rare inscribed, dated, and signed jug form has a history of ownership in an African American family, purchased by consignor in Walterboro area in the 60's from an owner with other pieces of "Dave" stoneware for around $50. 00, made at Lewis Miles's Stony Bluff Manufactory, dark brown runny alkaline glaze on bulbous tapered body with circular spout and applied strap handle, "Lm Sept 6 1859 Dave" inscribed on shoulder, three inscribed slash marks adjacent to inscription below spout, written in black script on underside "Dady(sic) Gibs/ Maum(sic) Hannah Stephens/ By Tim" (probably Timothy Stephens, born around 1894 in S. C. ) 13-3/4 in. x 10 ¼ inches, lot accompanied by extensive documentation regarding the Stephens family and a 1984 receipt for repairs to the mouth and handle of a "lg brown jug" - Note: The names of the people inscribed on this jug, "Dady Gibs, Maum Hannah Stephens and Tim” are listed as Gibbs, Hannah and Timothy Stephens, residing in Warren Township, (later named Williams) Colleton County, South Carolina in the 1910 Federal Census. Both Gibbs and Hannah were born as enslaved people; Gibbs was born in 1854 and Hannah in 1861 in South Carolina. They are shown as owning their own farm, mortgage free. The census lists Tim as 16 years old, one of nine children and able to read and write. The inscription on the bottom of the jug indicates it is a gift from Tim to his parents Gibbs and Hannah in the early 1900s. There is no indication how Tim acquired the jug or if he knew anything about Dave. The pottery manufacturers in Edgefield including the Lewis Miles pottery where Dave worked, were able to load their wares onto the trains in nearby Hamburg for distribution to coastal towns. Tim likely found the jug in Warren and acquired it for utilitarian use. He may have also thought it was a novelty since it was signed and dated. Although he writes "by Tim", it is thought that he meant “from Tim”. The 1940 census indicates that he had completed the fifth grade but his education may have been rudimentary at best. In July 1918, Timothy was drafted to serve in WWI and by 1920 he was again living with his parents in Warren, South Carolina. The 1940 census indicates that Timothy still resides in Warren where he is married and works as a manager. According to Hancock family members, Aubrey Hancock purchased the jug in the 1960’s from a lady who resided in Walterboro, Colleton County, South Carolina approximately 25 miles from where the Stephens family resided. Few if any Dave wares have been documented as being owned by African Americans in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Tim’s inscription to his parents provide us with a rare glimpse to how Dave Drake’s work may have been valued within the African American community. , Provenance: Estate of Aubrey Hancock, Charleston, South Carolina Dimension Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, minor chips and abrasions to glaze at body, several chips to glaze around base edge, repairs to entire handle and spout, associated 4 in. stabilized hairline down through the L in inscription, large associated stabilized hairline from spout, down through body and back up to handle, small hairlines under handle
Two Pieces of Early Pottersville Pottery: Edgefield District, South Carolina, circa 1820's, storage jar with tan alkaline glaze, three "slash" marks to shoulder, curved ringed neck, flat rim, applied lug handles, 13 in. ; lead glazed earthenware storage jar, two "slash" marks to ringed shoulder, applied lug handles. curved neck, flat rim, 11-3/4 in. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, alkaline glaze jar with loss of glaze around base edge and loss of finished base, loss to base edge, various chips to both handles, chip to interior rim, 3 in. large firing separation to side of jar, several chips to glaze at clay body, glaze wear and abrasions, earthenware jar with restorations to rim and shoulder of jar, 1/2 in. rim chip, wear and abrasions to jar
Southern Stoneware Storage Jar, Attributed to Dave Attributed to Dave Drake at Lewis Miles Stony Bluff Pottery (Edgefield, South Carolina), circa 1840-1860. A nicely turned stoneware jar with lug handles in close proximity to lip, on ovoid body. Upper body with rich alkaline glaze and exhibiting "U" inscribed mark along with side punctuation style marks. Approximate height 14.37". Note: Also known by the names Dave the Slave and Dave the Potter, David Drake is recognized as the first slave potter to inscribe his name on a work, a notable attribute in a time when most slaves were illiterate and anonymous. Provenance: From the Estate of Liz Howell Bloodworth, Atlanta, Georgia.
Southern stoneware storage jar SC Pottery Co Edgefield South Carolina circa 1890 tangerine alkaline glaze with tooled rim on ovoid body flanked by applied handles flanking shoulder with four slash marks. H15 1/2'' W13'' Provenance: Savannah Georgia private collection.
SC Pottery Storage Jar, Thomas Chandler, Edgefield ca. 1840, applied lug handles, alkaline glazed stoneware with Kaolin slip decoration of loops and swags.
Two chips to one lug handle; small area of glaze crawl.
16.25"
Estimate: 7,000.00 - 9,000.00
Small Incised Edgefield Stoneware Jug: possibly attributed to a Landrum Pottery, Edgefield District, South Carolina, circa 1840's, brown alkaline glaze, small ovoid form, coggle wheel or dotted "A" mark on shoulder, applied strap handle, double collared neck, 8-1/4 in. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, repair to back of rim and spout, shoulder aroundÿback of spout and handle, and to the side of handle, abrasions to glaze, kiln debris, 2 minor base edge chips and wear, ÿ
Lewis Miles Stoneware Crock
Mid 19th Century, Edgefield district of South Carolina. Alkaline glazed with drips at handles. Rare stamped signature "L. Miles". The pottery factory of Lewis J. Miles was in business for over four decades in the mid 19th Century. This particular crock was made during the time that the famous potter "Dave the Slave" worked in the business. However, the Miles pottery had fourteen employees in 1860. There is a slight lean which occurred during the firing process and very minor chips. Crack halfway around base. 11" x 9" diameter.
Collin Rhodes Attributed Edgefield Stoneware Jar: likely made at Rhodes Pottery, Shaw's Creek, Edgefield District, South Carolina, circa 1850, speckled olive green alkaline glaze, ovoid form, kaolin slip leaf decoration at both opposing shoulders of jar. applied lug handles, ridged neck, angled rim, lid shelf in mouth, 14-1/4 in. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, large 2-1/4 in. rim loss and associated crack, 1-3/4 in. rim chip, 5 in. hairline from rim to shoulder, other minor chips to rim edge. star hairline crack near decoration, another star hairline crack to lower body, "L" shaped hairline near other handle, residue to exterior, base edge chips and wear, all hairlines seem to be stabilized
Edgefield style stoneware jar, two lug handles, mottled dark olive alkaline glaze, applied Edgefield style swag slip decoration, base marked "Deanes Pottery Cleveland, Ga.", side with conjoined "WD", 14-3/4 in. Excellent condition. The Collection of Sam and Martha Tolbert
TWO PIECES OF SOUTHERN STONEWAREEdgefield stoneware storage jar, brownish tan alkaline glaze, thick greenish runs at sides of jar, arched applied lug handles at sides of jar, piece of flared rim, possibly attributed to the Siegler Pottery, Trenton area, South Carolina, 14 1/4 in.; Albany slip stoneware churn, applied lug handles with seven impressions across the tops, short flared rim, inscribed "4" capacity mark below handle, 17-1/2 in.
Provenance: Private South Carolina Collection
Condition:
glaze voids and anomalies as made, Edgefield jar with loss to most of rim, 1-1/2 loss to one handle with two other chips, surface wear and abrasions, minor chips to clay body, stoneware churn with glaze chips around edge of rim, 3/4 in. interior rim chip, surface wear, abrasions and minor chips to clay body
Important Southern Edgefield District stoneware pictorial jug attributed to Stoney Bluff possibly Dave South Carolina circa 1860 rich alkaline glaze with single ring spout aside strap handle leading to ovoid body incised with pictorial decoration of man in boots in the act of tipping his hat along with inscription at upper body possibly reading ''David'' above another word or phrase leading to numbers one through six followed by four other numbers. H11 1/8'' W9'' Provenance: Sold to benefit a Georgia non-profit historic institution Gift of an Edgefield County SC family circa 1960. Literature: Baldwin Cinda. GREAT & NOBLE JAR. Athens GA: Univ. of Georgia Press 1993. p.159 plate 5.25. Goldberg Arthur and James Witkowski. BENEATH HIS TOUCH: THE DATED VESSELS OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVE POTTER DAVE. Published in CERAMICS IN AMERICA 2006. Milwaukee WI: Chipstone Foundation 2006. pp. 67-70 table 1 numbers 81 and 93. Other Notes: Inscribed pictorial decoration on stoneware created in the Edgefield District of South Carolina is an exceedingly rare occurrence. Only three known and documented vessels including this ''Gent's Tip of the Hat Jug'' have been discovered in over a century of formal collecting among both museums and private entities. The two other examples are storage jars one with horse and rider signed ''Dave'' mentioned in ''Ceramics in America 2006'' and the other featuring a bird illustrated in ''Great and Noble Jar'' and referenced in ''Ceramics in America.'' These jugs have been attributed to the Stoney Bluff pottery site owned by Lewis Miles and are of the same school of decorators appearing to be by the same hand. The configuration of the spout handle attachment and body form have been compared to shards excavated at Stoney Bluff and are a good match. The signature at the upper body of this jug is illegible; however it appears to possibly read ''David.'' The pottery operation at Stoney Bluff involved Dave and several other enslaved potters working alongside one another and learning to create the vessels we behold today. Good overall condition with no repair or restoration. Glaze imperfections and skip at base as made having very minor chips at base. Bottom with consistent wear. overall wear consistent with age.
Thomas Chandler Decorated Stoneware Jar: (Edgefield District, South Carolina, circa 1850s) likely made at the Thomas Chandler Pottery, Kirksey's Crossroads, fine example of the makers decorated work, expertly thrown nicely rounded tapered form, tannish green alkaline glaze with several thick glaze runs to handles and shoulder running down the sides to base edge, nicely brush applied looping kaolin slip decoration around the entire shoulder ofÿ the jar, large applied arched lug handles, tightly turned neck with flat rim, "CHANDLER MAKER" stamped just below neck on shoulder, 17-1/4 in. Provenance: The Collection of Carl and Marian Mullis Condition glaze voids and clay body anomalies as made, small firing separations to glaze around base as made, clay body anomalies likely as made, expected minor surface abrasions from use, 3-1/2 in. area of illumination at rim under blacklight due to professional restoration, another area of illumination under blacklight to kaolin decoration likely due to residueÿÿ
Three Pieces of Edgefield Stoneware: Edgefield stoneware bowl, light tan glaze, angled body, rounded rim, possibly made at Pottersville, circa 1820s, 5-1/2 x 11 in. ; large jug with light tan glaze over clay body, rounded form, inscribed "3" on shoulder, applied strap handle, flared rim, possibly attributed to a Landrum Pottery, 15 in. ; storage jar, light brownish green alkaline glaze, lopsided form, two possible "slash" marks to base edge and shoulder near handle, possibly two at handle, two possible punctates at shoulder, possibly attributed to Dave at Landrum Pottery, circa 1840, 11 in. - Provenance: Collection of Dr. Joseph T. and Gaile E. Wingard, Jacksonville, Florida Condition glaze voids and anomalies as made, bowl with 5-1/2 in hairline up side to rim, hairline around 2/3 of the bowl's base, residue to interior and exterior, attempt to repair 1 in. chip to glaze at side of bowl, jug with tape residue to exterior, otherwise good condition, jar with restorations to rim and side of jar at one handle, several chips around interior of rim, 21 in. hairlines to rim, base edge wear, glaze hairline under one handle, several areas of illumination under blacklight to front of jar likely due to residue, interior of jar with some clay body losses
SC Pottery, Edgefield, Slave Made Storage Jar, mid 19th c., overall alkaline glazed stoneware, with applied lug handles, three slash marks indicate three gallon capacity, possible attribution to "Dave", a slave who worked at Lewis ...
Estimate: 1,500.00 - 3,000.00
Three pieces Matthew Hewell pottery (Gillsville, Georgia, born 1972), stoneware with runny alkaline glaze: pitcher with blue band and seal for state of Georgia, dated 2005, 10 in.; chicken waterer with large rutile run, undated, 9-1/2 in.; jar with two lug handles and Edgefield style looped slip decoration and slip flower, dated 2004, 12 in., glaze anomalies , all signed in script on base "Matthew Hewell John 3:16". Excellent condition. The Collection of Sam and Martha Tolbert