Drake’s descendants say the first-of-its-kind return acknowledges broken title for works taken from enslaved creators
Pauline Baker, Daisy Whitner, John Williams, and Priscilla Williams Carolina, descendants of artist David Drake, with “Signed Jar” (1857).
Nationwide — In a historic restitution of art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has agreed to return two rare stoneware vessels created by the artist known as Dave the Potter or David Drake—an enslaved 19th-century craftsman—to his heirs. Until now, the works of enslaved African American artists have not been part of the global art restitution movement, but the MFA’s action bridges that gap; it is applying the same ethical standards to works wrongfully taken from enslaved artists as it does to looted and forcibly sold art, which, by definition, has broken the chain of title. As such, principles of ethical restitution apply to Drake’s works, as they would to art taken by Nazis during the Holocaust or Benin bronzes taken from the Kingdom of Benin, now in Nigeria.
“As a family, we want to thank and commend the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for its outstanding moral, ethical, and inspiring leadership with regard to this landmark act of restitution,” said Pauline Baker, Drake’s great-great-great-granddaughter. “Our great-great-great-grandfather never got to own one single piece of his own pottery or to pass them on to his children and grandchildren. But today the Museum does all it can to right that wrong.”
How the Agreement Works
Under the agreement, the MFA will transfer the legal title of two jars to a trust formed by Drake’s descendants. The museum will repurchase one jar from the descendants, while the second will remain owned by the trust and temporarily loaned to the MFA. The trust will issue the museum a certificate of ethical ownership for the repurchased jar. This process will distinguish pieces of Drake pottery that are owned legitimately and ethically, through engagement with the family, from those that are not.
The family has launched a website: DescendantsOfDave.org, where people who believe they may be Drake descendants can come forward. To ensure ample opportunity for others to come forward, the family has decided not to distribute funds to Drake’s known descendants for a two-year period, allowing time for additional descendants to be identified.
A Historic First
“We applaud the MFA’s extraordinary leadership and exemplary commitment to justice, aligning its actions with its stated values,” said George Fatheree, a chief architect of the deal and counsel for the Drake’s descendants. “The return of Drake’s works is groundbreaking – it affords descendants of enslaved African Americans the same rights and dignity bestowed on descendants of Jewish people persecuted under the Nazis.”
Biography of David “Dave” Drake
David Drake was born around 1800–1801 into slavery in South Carolina. Over decades in the Edgefield pottery district, he mastered alkaline-glazed stoneware, producing monumental jars and utilitarian vessels, some bearing his name and short poems—an extraordinary act of resistance at a time, as literacy by enslaved people had been outlawed since 1740. Drake was an acclaimed potter, believed to have created several thousand vessels. The Edgefield Advertiser wrote in 1859 how children like to watch jugs, jars, and crocks take shape under his “magic touch.”
Census records suggest he died in the 1870s.
Market Context
In recent years, Drake’s works have skyrocketed in value, fetching prices of tens of thousands of dollars and upwards. In August 2021, one of his monumental verse jars sold for $1.56 million, a world record for American pottery. Yet despite their soaring market value, none of Drake’s descendants ever shared in those benefits.
The value of David Drake’s pottery is two-fold. His monumental jars are objects of beauty, celebrated for their form, scale, and glaze. But his signed and inscribed pieces reveal something even more profound.
“Even while enslaved, and forced to work day in and day out, his mind and soul, his personality and character were always free,” Baker said. “That ability to hold onto his sense of self is what resonates down through the centuries and inspires us as a family.”
Museum of Fine Art, Boston
The Boston museum’s leadership has been crucial in celebrating Drake’s work as well as amplifying the conditions under which he and dozens of other enslaved African Americans toiled in South Carolina potteries before the Civil War. Its 2023 exhibit “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina” showcased 60 ceramic pieces by Black potters from the stoneware-producing district of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, including monumental works by David Drake.
“These jars are not only extraordinary works of art—they are tangible evidence of a life of brilliance and resilience lived under oppression,” said Pierre Terjanian, the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Director. “By returning them to David Drake’s descendants, we acknowledge the artist as their first rightful owner and seek to restore the cultural—and familial—dignity that was lost when the works were taken from him.”
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