A Rare And Large David Drake Alkaline Glazed Two-Handled Stoneware Storage Jar

David Drake (c. 1800-c.1870), Edgefield, South Carolina, 1859

the shoulder incised Lm April 7, 1859 / Dave, the reverse with three slashes.

Height 22 x diameter 21 inches.

Provenance:

Ralph Jones (1821-1890) and Susan Elizabeth Morton Jones (1847-1939), of Eatonton, Georgia;

to their daughter, Elizabeth Jones Gooch (1875-1969), and her husband Benjamin Erasmus Gooch (1869-1944);

to their daughter, Susan Gooch Cone (1903-1950), and her husband Aaron Asberry Cone (1899-1967);

thence by descent to the present owner, Eatonton, Georgia.

Note:

When discussing stoneware of the American South, it is essential to consider the work of the now well-known enslaved potter Dave Drake (circa 1800- circa 1870), aka “Dave the Potter.” In recent years, his works have gained the attention of institutions and collectors across the country. With exhibitions like Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, a touring exhibition displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor), the public is now beginning to learn from the important works created by Drake and other enslaved people in the American South.

Ralph Jones was born in Granville, North Carolina in 1821, and by the 1850 Census had relocated to Putnam County, Georgia, where his listed occupation is farmer. In 1872, Ralph married Susan Elizabeth Morton, a young woman 25 years his junior. The 1850 Federal Census shows that Susan, her parents and siblings were all from South Carolina. While research indicates she was born in South Carolina, there is no other evidence to suggest that Susan lived anywhere other than Eatonton, Georgia for the rest of her life.

It is unclear how the family of Susan Jones came into possession of this storage jar, but according to family lore, it is certain that the jar has been in the possession of the Jones family since 1859.