Jar

Thomas W. Commeraw

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vessel was made by Thomas W. Commeraw, a free African American potter working in Manhattan's Lower East Side during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Commeraw operated a kiln in Corlears Hook, the area along the shoreline of the East River now between the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridge. Like most stoneware of the period, Commeraw's vessels were largely utilitarian and embellished with incised decoration accented with a cobalt glaze. The distinctive foliate design found on both sides of this jar are typical of Commeraw's wares and distinguish his vessels from those of other New York City potters of the early 19th century. Commeraw's is the largest body of work by a free Black potter during the antebellum period.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art