Comments on: Ugly Jugs

By: battery

battery — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:14:45 +0000

I just returned from the UK and saw Roman pottery with faces made in England during the Roman occupation

By: Sullivan Pottery

Sullivan Pottery — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:17:00 +0000

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.

By: S.H.

S.H. — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:19:00 +0000

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!

By: battery

battery — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:45:53 +0000

[…] museum will publish a catalogue of its Persian ceramics in June […]

By: Rena

Rena — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:50:57 +0000

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!!

By: Jani Heil

Jani Heil — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:37:45 +0000

my face is ugly oh please help me!

By: kerrie

kerrie — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:33:53 +0000

it is ugly

By: Liz

Liz — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:39:17 +0000

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.

By: Linda Becnel

Linda Becnel — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:57:46 +0000

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.

By: Joel Patton

Joel Patton — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:07:48 +0000

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. :)