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Memory Vessel with Encased Photograph by Unidentified / American Art
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Memory Vessel with Encased Photograph

after 1933 Unidentified mixed media on ceramic 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (26.0 x 18.4 cm) diam. Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson 1986.65.308 Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center



Some memory jars may have come from African American traditions of decorating graves with objects owned by the deceased. The objects embedded in the surface of these bottles and jars provide clues about when they were made or who made them. For example, Jug with Finial includes a campaign button for William Jennings Bryan, a Democratic presidential candidate between 1896 and 1908, while High-Buttoned Shoe shows a macabre row of teeth that may have belonged to the maker.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Allegory - other - memory

Figure group

decorative arts - ceramic

folk art

animal parts - shell

animal parts - shell - mother of pearl

ceramic

glass

metal

mixed media

plastic

readymade - beads

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