Storage Jar

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1857

David Drake (American, c. 1801–1870s)
Lewis Miles Stoney Bluff Manufactory [plantation] (American, c. 1840–70s)
Edgefield, South Carolina

This boldly inscribed storage jar was made by David Drake, who was born enslaved around 1800and 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.

Status: On View, Gallery 161
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artists: David Drake , Lewis Miles Stoney Bluff Manufactory [plantation] (Maker)
Title: Storage Jar
Places: Edgefield (Object made in:), United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date: 1857
Medium: Stoneware and glaze
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, incised between handles on one side: "Lm September 7. 1857 / Dave " [script].
Dimensions: 45.7 × 43.2 cm (18 × 17 in.); Diam.: 43.2 cm (17 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of Arthur Rubloff; Wesley M. Dixon Jr. Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2020.58
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/257989/manifest.json

The Magazine Antiques, 153: 5 (May, 1998): 644 (ill.).
Jill Beute Koverman, ed., I Made This Jar— : The Life and Works of the Enslaved African-American Potter, Dave, exh. cat. (Columbia, SC: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1998).
Jori Finkel, “The Enslaved Artist Whose Pottery Was an Act of Resistance,” The New York Times, last modified June 18, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/arts/design/-enslaved-potter-david-drake-museum.html, (ill.).

Columbia, McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, “I made this jar…”: The Life and Work of the Enslaved African–American Potter, Dave, Apr. 19–Dec. 19, 1998, cat.; Atlanta, High Museum of Art, May 16–July 31, 1999; Detroit, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Oct. 9–Jan. 2, 2000; DE, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Feb. 5–June 25, 2000.

Tony and Marie Shank, Georgetown, SC; Brad Rauschenberg and Judy Aanstad, Winston-Salem, SC, by 1998 [Koverman, 1998]; sold, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, NC, Feb. 8, 2020, lot 1210, to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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