Collection Highlights
Proposed Coat of Arms for New Amsterdam, New Netherland: Preparatory Drawing for a Presentation to the Dutch West India Company
ca. 1630
1885.5
Black ink and wash, watercolor, red and black chalk, and red gouache, with contours incised by a stylus on laid on paper, mounted on card
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Museum Collections
Decorative Arts
Jug
Object name
Jug
Date
1797-1819
Medium
Stoneware
Dimensions
Overall: 17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. ( 45.1 x 29.8 cm )
Description
Salt-glazed stoneware jug with impressed maker's mark and decorated with impressed cobalt blue swags.
Credit Line
Gift of Samuel V. Hoffman
Object Number
1928.52
Marks
impressed: on front of jug: "COMMERAWS/CORLEARS/HOOK"
Gallery Label
Scholars long assumed that stoneware potter Thomas W. Commeraw was of European descent. Recent research, however, shows that he was a free African American. His pottery was located at Corlear's Hook on the East River, near today's Chinatown. It produced utilitarian storage vessels like this jug from 1797 to 1819. Commeraw was involved in the antislavery movement, and in 1820 he traveled to Sierra Leone as an advocate for the American Colonization Society, which promoted the "return" of free African Americans to Africa.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
