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This jug features thick teeth of pipe clay, incised eyebrows, and facial hair and eyes. At one point the ear lobes were pierced for earrings. It appears to depict an African American, but it is not known whether the potter was Black or white.
Exhibition History“Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art”, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, August 28, 2009 – January 14, 2010; Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY, August 23, 2008 – December 31, 2008.
Artist
Unidentified Artist
(American)
Face Jug
Date1820-1850
DimensionsOverall: 11 3/4 × 10 1/2 × 5 1/8 in. (29.8 × 26.7 × 13 cm)
Object numberN0225.1951
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Museum Purchase
Label TextFace jugs are an iconic American art form. These striking anthropomorphic vessels were the result of the mixing of European forms with new American styles. Face jugs were made in the Northeast in limited numbers in the mid-1800s, but the form grew and became more uniquely American when it was brought from Baltimore to the pottery center of Edgefield, South Carolina. There, enslaved and later free African American potters produced vessels which may have been made for spiritual as well as utilitarian purposes. The face jug was later adopted and modified by white potters and became a commercial art form.This jug features thick teeth of pipe clay, incised eyebrows, and facial hair and eyes. At one point the ear lobes were pierced for earrings. It appears to depict an African American, but it is not known whether the potter was Black or white.
Exhibition History“Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art”, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, August 28, 2009 – January 14, 2010; Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY, August 23, 2008 – December 31, 2008.
On View
On view
