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Last week at the Presurfer I saw a video of Alabama potter Jerry Brown making a jug. It was interesting enough that I went to YouTube to grab the video, and found a whole series of videos of the same guy, each more fascinating than the one before. Especially this one:
I was afraid of what would come up when I Googled “ugly jugs”, but with safe search, I found just what I was looking for. Jugs with faces date back to antiquity, but became an American folk art tradition. The time and place this tradition began depends on your source, and the jugs had several purported purposes which could all be valid.
More ugly faces, after the jump.
Jerry Brown heard that slaves made ugly jugs to distinguish the different liquids inside. Jugs with faces were for the ones you couldn’t drink, such as kerosene.
Potter Jim McDowell heard the history of the jugs handed down through generations. According to family lore, ugly jugs were used by slaves as grave markers, made ugly to scare the devil away. McDowell’s face jugs include messages, like this one that says “Don’t judge the color of my skin; judge me by the content of my character.”
According to Pawprint Pottery of Barnwell, South Carolina, ugly jugs were used to keep kids out of the moonshine. They were made as scary as possible for this purpose! These jugs with recycled porcelain teeth would do the trick.
Potters provided jugs for bootleggers during the 1920s, but made them with ugly faces to show their support for Prohibition.
The Smithsonian Institution doesn’t know what purpose the ugly jugs served, but places their origin in South Carolina in the mid 1800s.
Most sources I found placed the face jug tradition as beginning in Edgefield, South Carolina, although they are also associated with Georgia and other southern states. Georgia artist Brian Wilson made these whistling face jugs.
American Folk Art and Framing places the origin of face jugs in the piedmont region of North Carolina and Georgia. They feature works by many different artists, including this cross-eyed face jug.
Clayton Bailey makes face jugs with runny noses!
Here is the original video I saw of pottery artist Jerry Brown of Hamilton, Alabama, throwing a jug.
He also tells of his experiences in other short video clips, recorded to promote The Year of Alabama Artists.
Now I want an ugly jug. If they can scare away children and the devil, maybe they can ward off mosquitos and telemarketers!
Comments (16)
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Wasn’t this guy featured on an episode of Dirty Jobs? Love it!
posted by Jill on 8-28-2007 at 6:23 am
Jerry’s shop is about 1.5 hrs away from the Bham mental_floss office. My wife and I made a trip up a couple yrs back and bought a few pieces. Very cool stuff.
posted by Will on 8-28-2007 at 9:14 am
My father-in-law has a huge collection of ugly jugs. Try walking past that display in the dark of night on your way to the bathroom!
posted by Kara on 8-28-2007 at 12:48 pm
Yeah, I’m pretty sure i saw this guy on dirty jobs as well. He made a cool-looking clay pig too.
posted by Annie on 8-29-2007 at 7:10 pm
Yeah, I want a pig like that!!!
posted by caro on 8-30-2007 at 6:50 am
Dem some UGLAY jugs! Phugly even! Damn, if I had a pair of jugs like them, I would hide them under my shirt or something…
posted by actor212 on 8-30-2007 at 9:46 am
Neat post!
The Edgefield origin is the correct one, though the tradition stems out of earlier British Toby jugs. A potter named Abner Landrum reinvented a method of making alkaline glazes (originally invented by the Chinese many hundreds of years beforehand). Slave potters worked the pottery, and Landrum and the potters started making face jugs in the early to middle 1800s.
Their significance is a little unclear, but I think the most likely explanation is that people are bound to put a face on something eventually. Slaves didn’t have very much chance for self-expression, so this might have been one of their few opportunities to make things that were meaningful to themselves.
Oh, and the guy on Dirty Jobs was David Meaders, of Cleveland, GA. :)
posted by Joel Patton on 9-14-2007 at 9:07 am
The traditional face jugs are great, but it’s also interesting to see what a really good modern clay and ceramic artist can do with the concept. Ron Dahline takes the face jugs to three dimensional heights with georgeous glazes and often a bit of humor. He sells a piece about every other week on E-Bay and his fan base is growing as are the prices he commands for pieces. A real find and someone to watch in the genre.
posted by Linda Becnel on 10-4-2007 at 6:57 am
Just found this site, I thought it was cool that my pottery work and name should show up on this site on my birthday! (By the way my web-site is copyrighted, so I should have been asked first.)
Regardless, I just wanted to set the record straight on face vessels. They have been made by potters of all different cultures all down through the centuries. American potters -black and white – were influenced by the potters immigrating to the US. I just returned from the UK and saw Roman pottery with faces made in England during the Roman occupation -bc – and also German pottery from the 1700’s that look so much like the face jugs being made by contemporary potters today. Even though I live here, South Carolina potters did not “invent” face jugs – we just perfected the craft.
posted by Liz on 10-27-2007 at 7:39 pm
it is ugly
posted by kerrie on 11-30-2007 at 11:33 am
my face is ugly oh please help me!
posted by Jani Heil on 1-3-2008 at 3:37 pm
Hi there! My little brother did a project on these and he has been dying to get one but we can’t find one anywhere. If you know where I might be able to order or buy one please let me know! My email is babyfirewolf11@hotmail.com. I greatly appreciate it!!
posted by Rena on 6-11-2008 at 3:50 pm
[…] museum will publish a catalogue of its Persian ceramics in June […]
posted by battery on 7-1-2008 at 4:45 am
My parents bought an ugly face jug in the late ’80’s for around $200. It was made by Lanier Meaders, who lived in North Georgia. Their jug is now worth over $5K, but I still make my Mom hide it when I go to her house…it creeps me out!
posted by S.H. on 1-14-2009 at 2:19 am
I have an article on my site (www.facejugartist.ning.com) with pictures of very old face jugs 13th century and older and a good Roman face jug from 1 BC. My research found many different inspirations for face jugs.
posted by Sullivan Pottery on 4-2-2009 at 1:17 pm
I just returned from the UK and saw Roman pottery with faces made in England during the Roman occupation
posted by battery on 9-23-2009 at 11:14 am