1854 Dave Drake Stoneware Jug
APPRAISER: Shana, you are one lucky Charlestonian. Would you tell us on the Roadshow, how you managed to get this piece of pottery?
GUEST: We had a family estate auction back in 1995 and, um, I was the only person to bid on this stone jug. Um, the appraiser had it listed for $100 and the opening bid was $60, so I paid $60. There was a fellow that approached me right outside where we had the auction and asked if I would like to sell it and I off... I sold it to him for $100.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And my mother said that I should get that jug back because, um, I don't know what... you know, what it is and I chased him to the car and he gave it back to me.
APPRAISER: Well, you are very, very lucky. This happens to be a piece of Edgefield stoneware. Uh, it is, uh, ash glazed-- alkaline glazed-- which is something that is typical of this area. Now, what is this little thing around here?
GUEST: This string was just inside and it's got the cork. It was just inside. I don't know.
APPRAISER: Well, it has really nothing to do with this pot which I will turn around here so somebody can see some of the writing on it and turn it on its side, because what it says is "L.M. says this handle will crack." "L.M." stands for Lewis Miles and this is a fantastic piece of stoneware made by a slave named Dave. They call him "Dave the Slave" amongst the collectors. Uh, there is right now, I think-- if it hasn't gone off-- at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, a show on his pottery. Uh, he is extremely popular. And let me show the date. Here we have it. It is dated as well as signed by Dave and the date is June 28, 1854 and it says "Dave." Dave worked for a number of potters in Edgefield including the Chandlers and for Lewis Miles, whose initials are on this pot. He was one of a number of slaves, uh who worked for those Edgefield potters and, uh, obviously their wares were sold by Miles for profit. But one other thing about Dave: Dave had huge hands. He made some of the largest pots that are ever known out of stoneware and he was educated, because he could write and it was against the law at that time for a slave owner to educate his slaves but nobody ever got after Miles or Chandler for doing it and he potted right on through until late in the Civil War and finally, when the slaves were set free he went off on his own and sort of disappeared but as I say a lot of people have done a lot of work on Dave and his ware is incredibly popular down here in South Carolina. It's sort of iconographic to South Carolina.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Everybody talks about the best pieces of South Carolina pottery being made by Dave the Slave. I love the form, the handle. It's got a little chunk here out of the, uh... the spout of it but I mean, it doesn't make any difference. I have to tell you that at auction several years ago one of Dave's pots about this particular size and with this similar date took $4,500.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: What do you think of that?
GUEST: That's more than $60.
APPRAISER: (chuckling) Right and if I had this to sell, I would probably price it at about something like $6,000 today.
GUEST: Oh, that's great.
APPRAISER: That was in '93 when that thing sold.
GUEST: Okay, that's awesome.
APPRAISER: You were so lucky that you got that thing back from that fellow.
GUEST: Yeah.
$6,000 - $6,000 Auction
$6,000 - $6,000 Retail
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Appraisal Extras
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Explainer: Who Was Dave the Potter?
Find out more about Dave Drake, also known as “Dave the Potter,” a literate and highly skilled artisan, born into slavery in South Carolina in the early 19th century and now celebrated for his finely crafted stoneware.
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
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