Sunday, July 14, 2024
Its HOT! HOT! HOT! THINK COOL THOUGHTS! Christmas in July! A Charleston Walking Tour full of Holiday Spirit!~
Monday, January 29, 2024
Ceramics for Slaves: Colonoware
Colonoware vessel, Georgia ca 1750 |
As Native Americans dispersed from the southeast, it appears that Colonoware production was taken up by plantation blacks to provide cooking and eating vessels. This is a practice most likely encouraged by plantation owners. It was, after all, an inexpensive source of cooking and eating ware that put elderly or substantially disabled individuals back to work.
Typically, plantation slaves would have prepared food in a common pot. The food would have been transferred from the pot to a large wooden trough for serving and eating where it would be shared by all, or the food would be transferred into small bowls or pots, such as the colonoware bowl here illustrated.
Classic cooking bowl form |
It was the custom of the Catawba Indians …to come down, at certain seasons, from their far homes in the interior, to the seaboard, bringing to Charleston a little stock of earthen pots and pans….which they bartered in the city. They did not, however, bring their pots and pans from the Nation, but descending to the Lowcountry empty handed, in groups or families, they squatted down on the rich clay lands of the Edisto and and there established themselves in a temporary abiding place, until their simple potteries had yielded them a sufficient supply of wares with which to throw themselves into the market.”That colonoware was produced for the slave population can be inferred by the statement of Phillip Porcher, a St Stephens SC resident , recounting that :
“….the Catawba Indians ….traveled down from the upcountry to
Charleston, making clay ware for the negroes along the way. They would camp until a section was supplied and then move until finally Charleston was reached.”
Note that by this time , (1850s) exceptional high fired utilitarian stoneware was being produced and sold in the Winnsboro area. The stoneware, with a glassy alkaline glaze, was both durable and easy to clean. It was used for food production but also for serving as well, although fancy ware from Charleston was preferred at the dining table by country housewives who could afford it. By this time tinsmiths were producing plates and cups in the upcountry and rail was bringing goods inland from the coast. Apparently, the use of these items were reserved for the white population, and colonoware use was reserved for the slave population.
Below are examples of contemporary Catawba Pottery. This is a highly collectible product that is different than the Colonoware produced for trade
.
Figure 2. Contemporary Catawba Ware
Contemporary Catawba Pottery |
Friday, January 19, 2024
January 19 is the birthday of National Unity Leader Robert E. Lee
General Robert E Lee would be pleased.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
February is Black History Month : Identifying the ironwork of Peter Simmons
Peter Simmons (1856 - 1957) was a blacksmith and the mentor to Phillip Simmons, the famous African American blacksmith who was commissioned to forge beautiful ornamental ironwork that graces the driveways, balconies and garden entrances in downtown Charleston and throughout the Lowcountry. It is estimated that a full 60% of surving ornamental iron work in Charleston is attributed to him over his 65 year career, But many ofd those attributions are incorrect, as they are the work of his mentor, Peter Simmons, whose commissions, up to now, have been unhdocumented. .
I am a
believer that when it comes to history, the absence of evidence is not necessarily
the evidence of absence. Consider that gentlemen in the Age of Letters
oftentimes instructed estate executors to burn their correspondence. The idea
that a google search will provide the definitive answer –end of discussion—is a
flawed approach. I contend that just because it can be found on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s the last
word, or the only word, on a topic..
To
paraphrase Paul Harvey, there’s always the rest of the story.
Such is the
story of Peter Simmons. As many of you know, Peter Simmons was mentor for
famous Charleston blacksmith Phillip Simmons. The literature tells us that
Phillip Simmons trained in his blacksmith shop at 37 Calhoun Street starting at
about age 13. One would think from the literature that Peter Simmons was
engaged in a utilitarian trade, fixing wagon wheels, spokes etcetera. There is
no mention that he took commissions for ornamental work.,
yet his apprentice Phillip Simmons is famous for his ornamental work. Ah, the
absence of evidence….
The idea
that Peter Simmons taught Phillip Simmons the magic of turning iron into
artwork is a logical conclusion. After all, was Phillip Simmons so innately
talented that he taught himself? Some would have you think so, but now the
evidence has emerged confirming speculation that he learned his ornamental
skills from his old mentor.
Here we have a gate, photo provided by Phillip Simmons to the Old Slave Mart Museum, ornamental ironwork directly attributable to Peter Simmons.
The Old Slave Mart Collection, gathered and curated by Miriam Wilson in the first part of the 20th century, included ornamental wrought iron donated by Phillip Simmons in 1967. In the 1980s the collection sold for $12,000 to a black gentleman in Walterboro who sold off a substantial parts of the collection at auction, including Peter Simmon’s ironwork, in 2018. I went to the auction to document his work, and attached are those photographs. Peter Simmon’s ironwork was purchased by the Smithsonian Museum.