Object Details
maker
Brown Pottery
Description
The earliest face vessels known to have been produced by white southern potters were probably not made until the end of the 1800s. White potters working in the Edgefield area in the mid-1800s may have seen similar vessels made by African American potters who were enslaved, and taken the idea with them as they moved out of South Carolina.
Like many southern pottery families, the Brown family encompasses a line of potters generations long. The Browns began making pottery in west-central Georgia by the mid-1800s before migrating east to the Atlanta area after the Civil War. The family spread
from there to North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. This piece, on the left, may have been produced by the Brown family of Georgia in the early 1900s.
This face vessel came to the Museum as part of the Van Alstyne Collection of American Folk Art. Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collected more than 300 examples of American folk art over a period of about 40 years.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne American Folk Art Collection
date made
early 1900s
ID Number
CE.65.1067
catalog number
65.1067
accession number
256396
Object Name
vessel, face
Physical Description
ceramic, stoneware, coarse (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 16 cm x 14.7 cm; 6 5/16 in x 5 13/16 in
place made
United States: Georgia
See more items in
Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
Face Vessels
Cultures & Communities
Domestic Furnishings
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_573758