Face Vessel
Face Vessel
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- Description
- The tradition of shaping human likenesses on ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. Face vessels held different meanings in different cultures around the world. Some were probably used in burial rituals, others satirized the person whose features were captured in clay, and still others were made just for fun.
- Potters rarely signed their face vessels before the the 1920s, making attribution difficult. The maker of this face vessel, on the right, is not known. It features rough white clay to represent the teeth and eyes, much as the slave-made pieces used kaolin pieces.
- This piece came to the Museum as part of the Van Alstyne Collection of American Folk Art. Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collected more than 300 examples of American folk art over a period of about 40 years.
- Location
- Currently not on view (base)
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- face vessel
- vessel, face
- date made
- late 1800s-early 1900s
- Date made
- c. 1850-1860
- maker
- unknown
- place made
- United States
- Physical Description
- stoneware (overall material)
- Measurements
- base: 1 3/4 in x 5 1/8 in x 5 1/2 in; 4.445 cm x 13.0175 cm x 13.97 cm
- overall: 7 3/4 in x 5 13/16 in; 19.685 cm x 14.81658 cm
- ID Number
- CE.65.1066
- catalog number
- 65.1066
- accession number
- 256396
- Credit Line
- Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne American Folk Art Collection
- subject
- Art Pottery
- Blacks
- African American
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
- Face Vessels
- Cultures & Communities
- Domestic Furnishings
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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