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Oyster Jar - Image 5
Public Domain

Thomas W. Commeraw

Oyster Jar

1793-1803

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Thomas W. Commeraw

Oyster Jar

1793-1803

Physical Qualities Stoneware , 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (13.3 x 8.9 x 8.9 cm)
Credit Line Albert H. Cousins Memorial Fund
Object Number 2021.63
This jar for storing brine-soaked oysters reads “DANIEL / JOHNSON AND Co No 24 / LUMBER STREET/ New York.” Thomas Commeraw, a free Black ceramicist, made this jar for oysterman Daniel Johnson, another free Black entrepreneur in New York City. Commeraw-Johnson oyster jars, of which there are fewer than ten known, are the only identified ceramics by a free Black potter for a Black businessman prior to the Civil War (1861–1865). In the mid-20th century, this jar was pulled out of the water in Guyana, South America. It was found near a Dutch fort, erected when the region was colonized by sugar plantation owners and enslavers. The jar’s discovery confirms the trade of goods between North and South America shortly after the American Revolution and the global scope of Blackowned business in early independent America.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2021; Private Collection, by c. 1990; Neil Wilcox, London, England; Guyana, South America
American Folk Art Museum, "Unnamed Figures". American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, 13 November 2023- 24 March 2024.

Markings: Stamped "DANIEL / JOHNSON. AND. Co No 24 / LUMBER STREET / NEW. YORK."

Maker

Thomas W. Commeraw

1795–1819

American, active 1796-1820
Meet Thomas W. Commeraw

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