Edgefield District, South Carolina, attributed to Dave Drake at the Pottersville Manufactory, greenish tan alkaline glaze, some greenish glaze drips down from handles and shoulder, tapered bulbous ovoid form, inscribed "mar 20th 1839" at front shoulder, faint upside down "U" mark adjacent to handle, six tiny vertical slash marks to reverse of jar indicating capacity, 5-1/2 in. arching lug handles applied to opposing shoulders, straight neck with curved tooled rim, fingerprints to lower base edge in glaze, 15 in. tall, 44-1/4 in. circumference

Provenance: Private South Georgia Collection

Note: Fresh to the market example, recently found on a farm in Georgia. This impressive six-gallon vessel represents a significant example from the final year of Dave's known production at the Pottersville Manufactory site. This jar would be around the 16th earliest known dated form attributed to Dave according to the "Known Dated Vessels Signed by or Attributed to the Slave Potter Dave" list in the article "Beneath His Magic Touch: The Dated Vessels of the African-American Slave Potter Dave", by Arthur F. Goldberg and James P. Witkowski, Chipstone, Ceramics in America (2006), pg. 67-70. Similar form jars with similar dated scripts have sold in recent years at auction including one that sold January 27, 2018, lot 188, at Case Auctions in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a script of "April, 3, 1840" and "LM". That jar had a very similar "3" and open bottom "8" in the date that match this jar we are offering.

Exhibition: Selected for prominent exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art, where it was displayed from May 19, 2023, through July 3, 2026.