2024 | 45

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Guest Editor’s Introduction: New Discoveries: The Ever-Expanding South

A. Nicholas Powers

The American South is a dynamic, ever-expanding place. Each year, museum curators and scholars discover previously unknown objects and uncover stories that change (or in some cases reinforce) our perspectives on the lives of early Southerners and their cultural traditions. Long known for publishing groundbreaking research on the decorative, fine, folk and self-taught art, and material culture of the early South, MESDA is now providing a new platform for both emerging and established scholars. The “New Discoveries” feature of the MESDA Journal now provides museum professionals the opportunity to share short-form research notes highlighting significant new acquisitions and discoveries within their collections. Through the New Discoveries feature, the latest discoveries in southern culture will become available at the click of a button or the swipe of a screen. Lea Lane’s accompanying article exploring the significance of a rare stoneware jug by French-émigré potter Augustin Marchal is the perfect introduction for … Continued


New Discoveries: Alabama Pottery with a French Accent: MESDA’s Recently Acquired Jug by Augustin Marchal

Lea C. Lane

In 2022, MESDA expanded its collecting and research focus to include Alabama as our eighth state. We celebrated this long-contemplated move with the exhibition Thrown Together: Pots and People of Early Alabama in 2023. Before the exhibition opened, we were alerted to a remarkable jug coming to auction at Crocker Farm, Inc. [1]  It became MESDA’s first acquisition of an Alabama object and immediately went on view alongside other ceramic treasures from the state (Figure 1 and 2).[2] The jug acquired by MESDA is attributed to the shop of Augustin Marchal (b. 1810).[3] Soft blue leaves curl up the sides of the vessel, culminating in dotted arcs that echo the overall shape of the object. It may perhaps be a representation of a cotton plant; the tulip-like shapes resemble the bolls that eventually mature into billowy puffs of fibers, and the dashed arches could arguably represent that later stage of … Continued


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