AFA Summer 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 109 2019 Water cooler, attributed to Thomas Chandler (19th century), maker, Phoenix Factory, Edgefield District, S.C., 1840–1846, manufacturer, ca. 1840. Alkaline-glazed stoneware with slip decoration. 31¼ x 58⅝ in. Purchase in honor of Audrey Shilt, president of the Members Guild, 1996–1997, with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment and Decorative Arts Acquisition Trust (1996.132). This monumental vessel is among the rarest and most exceptional examples of Southern pottery ever made due to its unusual decoration. Thought to have been created for the wedding of an enslaved couple, the beverage cooler shows a man and woman toasting each other. Below them are a hog and, presumably, a depiction of this cooler, both of which may have played a part in the wedding feast. English- trained potter Thomas Chandler is believed to have introduced the cooler form to the Edgefield District of South Carolina from New England. The great number and variety of stoneware works with distinctive alkaline or salt glazes marked the Edgefield District as one of the most significant centers of ceramics production in the South and, indeed, all of nineteenth-century America. Figural jug, John Frederick Lehman (German, 1835–ca. 1883), 1860. Ash-glazed stoneware. 23¾ x 11½ x 10¾ in. Purchase with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment (1994.19). Reflecting a combination of African traditions and European techniques, face jugs are a characteristic form in Southern pottery. This jug is one of the largest and most elaborate figural vessels produced by a nineteenth-century potter working in the South. The identity of the African male depicted on the jug is unknown, but the tight-fitting stocking cap and presumably gold earrings, combined with a beautifully modeled tie, ruffled shirt, and well-tailored coat, convey a dashing character. Lehman cleverly signed this jug by impressing his own name onto the buttons of the figure’s coat. The molded rectangle on the front, just below the figure’s chest, originally must have framed a paper label identifying the jug’s contents. The German-born Lehman was known from census records to be operating a pottery in Randolph County, Alabama, as early as 1860.