Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The Museum Year 2011
The Year
Acquisitions
Art of the Americas: July 2009–June 2011
Face Jug
about 1860
Unknown Maker
Made at Thomas Davies Pottery
Overall: 14.3 x 11.7 x 12.1 cm (5 5/8 x 4 5/8 x 4 3/4 in.)
Stoneware, alkaline (ash) glaze; kaolin clay inserts
Classification: Ceramics
Object Place: South Carolina
Accession number: 2011.1808
Description: Face vessel with spout at top. Eyes and teeth made from white kaolin set in earthenware body, and covered with the same alkaline glaze as the body. Broad nose with wide-set eyes. Greenish glaze.
Provenance/Ownership History: By 1926, collection of George S. McKearin (1). At unknown date, sold by McKearin to D. S. Clark, a dealer; 1952, sold by Clark to collectors Harry and Dorothy Frey (Terre Haute, Indiana) for $65.00; at unknown date, sold by Freys to Jayne Blaske for $150.00; September 17, 1983, sold at Skinner Auction, sale of the Edmund & Jayne Blaske Collection, lot #506, purchased by Tony L. Shank (Marion, S.C.); June 8, 1997, sold by Shank to John Axelrod, Boston; 2011, sold by Axelrod to the MFA. (Accession date: June 22, 2011). 1. Illustrated in John Spargo, Early American Pottery and China (New York: The Century Co., 1926), plate 61.
The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection