South Carolina State Museum Acquires Historic Edgefield Face Vessel

“This is an exciting and inspiring addition,” says Paul Matheny, Director of Collections. “Face vessels are specific to our statewide tangible history and traditional art, with the earliest examples coming from the Edgefield District during the mid-19th century. This tradition spread throughout the Southeast and is continued by folk potters and even some studio potters today.”

The purpose of this pottery is debated among researchers. Some believe the scary faces were designed to frighten children from drinking the alcohol or poison that could have been held inside, while others believe they were used to ward off evil spirits. Some think they were simply created for fun at the end of a hard day of pottery production. Regardless of its origins, this important piece of pottery has found a home within the museum’s collection and is now on display in the State Museum’s Recent Acquisitions Gallery on the 4^th floor.

The journey in obtaining a historic Edgefield face vessel from this time period has been a long one for the museum. Since its opening in the 1980s, the State Museum has sought to acquire such a piece with previous attempts being unsuccessful as Edgefield pottery, particularly face vessels, became more popular. The significance of the South Carolina-made pottery is now known nationwide, made clear by the opening this month of a new Edgefield pottery exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The MET exhibition features two pieces on loan from the South Carolina State Museum’s ceramic art collection, which includes more than 400 historic pieces of pottery.