Face jug

1860-1880

Place madeSouth Carolina, United States

Stoneware, kaolin, alkaline glaze

Overall: 7 1/8 × 5 3/4 × 7 in. (18.1 × 14.6 × 17.8 cm)

Purchased from Elie Nadelman

1937.1410

This face vessel may have been made on the Miles Mill plantation in Edgefield, South Carolina. It was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937. During the mid-nineteenth century, African American potters working in the Edgefield District of South Carolina began producing peculiar stoneware vessels incorporating faces with bulging eyes and gaping mouths. Long misunderstood as racist statements or as whimsies created by potters in their spare time, these objects are now believed to have functioned as ritual vessels among African Americans living in and around Edgefield. Face jugs relate to the Kongo ritual known as a “conjure,” in which a diviner or shaman used a distinctive vessel known as a 'nkisi' to hold magical materials and make contact with the spirit world. The use of kaolin clay, a material traditionally considered magical in West Africa, to form the white eyes and teeth of face jugs, also hints at a link to Kongo ritual.

DescriptionWheelthrown flaring cylindrical stoneware jug with bottle neck opening (corked) and top handle towards rear, front side decorated with face modeled in relief; eyes and teeth of kaolin (one eye and teeth slightly loose); dark green alkaline (wood ash) glaze.

ClassificationsCERAMICS

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