Like the Toussaint LOuverture portrait pitchers, face jugs made in the
nineteenth-century American South are difficult to interpret. Also known as
"ugly jugs," "voodoo pots," and "monkey jars,"
these objects may seem to be a form of early racist imagery. Yet many of the
earliest examples were in fact made by African-American potters in the Edgefield
District of South Carolina. These face jugs compare closely to some African
ceramic face vessels with similar bulging white eyes and oversized facial
features.
African-American pottersand certainly the white potters who later copied
the face jug formmay not have retained the original religious or symbolic
meaning of the art form. These powerful objects nonetheless speak eloquently
to the survival of African cultural traditions in early America.
Face vessel (cup), ca. 1862
Edgefield district, South Carolina
Stoneware with alkaline (ash) glaze
Lent by Pria Elizabeth Harmon
Face vessel, ca. 1860
Edgefield district, South Carolina
Stoneware with alkaline (ash) glaze
Lent by a private collection
Figurine, 1860-80
Edgefield district, South Carolina
Stoneware with alkaline (ash) glaze
Lent by Pria Elizabeth Harmon
Face vessel, ca. 1850
Edgefield district, South Carolina
Stoneware with alkaline (ash) glaze
Lent by Pria Elizabeth Harmon
An Aesthetic Darkey, 1882
Photograph by J. A. Palmer
(Aiken, South Carolina)
Stereoscopic photograph
Lent by Pria Elizabeth Harmon