AFA Summer 2019

Summer 108 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Storage jar, Dave (David) Drake (1801–ca. 1870), 1858. Alkaline-glazed stoneware. 22 x 20 x 20 in. Purchase with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment (1988.85). Dave Drake was one of the few enslaved African- American potters we know by name. His work is made even more remarkable by the fact that he often signed and dated his pieces and sometimes emblazoned them with verses. Throughout the South, laws passed or amended during the 1820s and ’30s prohibited the teaching of enslaved persons to read or write. How Dave learned to write is unclear, but he signed this jar’s neck, as was his custom, including the date he made the piece and the initials of his owner, Lewis Miles, at whose pottery workshop in Edgefield, South Carolina, he worked at the time. Dave also inscribed the words “I made this for our sott / it will never-never rott” onto the jar. Storage jars and jugs were made to contain a wide variety of meats, pickled vegetables, molasses, and other foods and drinks. Here, “sott” — which may suggest one who is foolish or drinks too much — implies the vessel was used to store alcoholic beverages, yet it was undoubtedly useful for other foodstuffs. Sideboard, unidentified enslaved African- American maker from the Mills Family, Mill Spring, N.C., ca. 1820–1860. Walnut, poplar, and yellow pine. 51 x 78 x 21 in. Purchase with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment (1998.52). While there were a great number of furnishings and other works produced by enslaved African Americans, in many instances their names have been ignored or lost. This sideboard is believed to have been made by an enslaved African- American craftsman for the Mills family in Polk County, North Carolina. The style of the sideboard reflects a combination of popular urban forms in its tall, column-like legs drawn from neoclassical design. The Mills family might have owned or seen examples of New York or Philadelphia neoclassical furniture and wished to have a similar sideboard; the resulting adaptation of national styles is characteristic of the increasing rapidity by which fashionable styles permeated even rural areas of the country.