A hand shapes glistening clay as it spins on a potter's wheel. Fired in a kiln, the result is durable, beautiful, and functional. It can last forever with care. Pottery, a gift from Egyptian artisans 4,000 years ago, is something we treasure to this day. Made from "mud, sweat, and tears," pottery reigns as one of man's oldest and most useful creations.

My Grandmother Walker owned earthen-hued urns and my Grandmother Poland whipped up butter in a gray, ceramic churn. The pieces seemed ancient. I figured they came from Edgefield. My mom says the pieces came from old Petersburg or Lisbon. And that's close to the truth. It turns out they may well be from Mt. Carmel, South Carolina.

Drury Boykin (DB) Cade of Petersburg operated a brick kiln in Mt. Carmel according to the book, Great and Noble Jar, by Cinda K. Baldwin. Cade hired two men from Elbert County, immigrants who had worked at the marble works there, to operate his Mt. Carmel factory. Besides bricks, the kiln turned out churns, cream pitchers, sugar bowls, and vases. Many bear the initials LAC for Cade's wife, Laura A. Cade.

JANE BESS Lincoln County has produced musicians, painters, writers, and photographers, but if it has given us potters outside of Creek Indians, I'm unaware of their existence. I hear, though, that a potter, Ella Arnold, formerly of Augusta, now operates Soap Creek Pottery in Lincoln County. The pottery tradition is alive and well.

Less than an hour from Lincolnton, about 46 miles across the state line, you'll find beautiful pottery, some in the tradition of Edgefield potters and some more contemporary: all of it beautiful and functional.

It's not surprising a pottery tradition has long flourished in Edgefield and its rich resources of kaolin, sands, feldspars, and pines. Jane Bess said the old pottery sites were all close to a creek. Makes sense. Why haul clay a ways if you could work near the creek.

On Labor Day, I drove to Edgefield to check out Edgefield pottery. To my disappointment, most of the town was closed, including potter Steve Ferrell's shop. Jane Bess Pottery, however, was open. Jane, a native of Charleston and a University of Georgia graduate, makes gorgeous, functional stoneware, jewelry, charming ornaments and more.

In a historic brick building, circa 1918, just off Main Street, you'll find her charming shop and studio. Jane, who once lived in Atlanta, told me the real America lives in small towns. Edgefield, with its ties to pottery, suits her artistic soul just fine. As you'd expect from a woman with a B.F.A. in Interior Design and Fine Art, her work beautifully expresses the human imagination in this tradition-rich area.

Edgefield pottery's history is a good one. Plantations there led to a demand for large-scale food storage and preservation. Family-owned stoneware factories emerged. In the 1800s, slaves made alkaline glazed, traditional pottery much as they had in Africa. Black's vessels frequently incorporated African designs and techniques. Particularly notable were the "grotesques" or "voodoo jugs" upon which slave potters applied facial features.

The most famous potter, Dave, inscribed some works with poetry. Dave, it's believed, was born around 1800. Much of what historians know about him comes from records of the families that ran the major pottery works. Dave left thirty years of verified work, from 1834 to 1864. In 1840, Dave began signing his work, not by merely stamping his initials on the base, as was the custom, but by writing "Dave" on the shoulder of most vessels. His jars and jugs provide more than just his signature and date of production. They provide a glimpse into life back then.

On one piece Dave inscribed I wonder where is all my relations / Friendship to all and every nation. This couplet, inscribed April 16, 1857, alludes to the buying and selling of slave family members. On another piece, dated August 7, 1860, he wrote I saw a leopard and a lion's face / then I felt the need of grace. Perhaps it references the Bible, a dream, or stories passed down by African ancestors. On one large food-storage container Dave wrote Great & Noble Jar, / hold sheep, goat, and bear, part of which gave Baldwin her book title.

Historians surmise that Dave learned to read and write, perhaps, while working as a typesetter for an owner, Abner Landrum, who published a newspaper, The Edgefield Hive. Baldwin notes that the old legislative district of Edgefield (Edgefield, Aiken, and Greenwood counties) has long been recognized as the origin for an alkaline-glazing process that characterized pottery produced throughout the lower South. The drippy, glaze of timber ash and lime now synonymous with Edgefield pottery proved to be a safe, inexpensive alternative to the once-popular but dangerous lead glaze. The lime gave Edgefield pottery its distinctive khaki color.

Steve Ferrell has been interested in Edgefield Pottery for close to forty years. In 1992, the Edgefield Historical Society invited him to Edgefield to revive the Edgefield tradition.

Ferrell operates Old Edgefield Pottery today. In 1996, Southern Living featured Ferrell in "Chatting With Edgefield's Potter." Visitors to his studio see a collection of ceramic antiquities and view works in progress characteristic of Edgefield County.

Owning Edgefield pottery, it's said, is like holding a piece of history in your hands. People will enjoy Steve and Jane's pottery for a long time to come, as so many have treasured Dave the Slave's work. Pottery is yet another great example of the work of hands ... how might our history differ had this beautiful art eluded mankind's grasp.

In this era of mass-produced plastic and rubber vessels, owning a piece of pottery truly is like holding a piece of history in your hand. You won't see Rubbermaid or Tupperware proudly displayed on a shelf. Nor will you find a verse on Rubbermaid or Tupperware ... just product codes, numbers, and perhaps a recycle symbol.

A piece of pottery, like a fingerprint, is unique. It's art and it's in the human DNA, and being just across the Savannah, it's not that far away from you.

Email Tom with feedback and ideas for new columns. tompol@ earthlink.net