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American Folk Art Face Vessels

The Assignment: to create a Face Jug inspired by the Folk Art Face Jugs of the South.

Objective – to create a jug that is:  Functional  Highly expressive – the facial expressions must make up one entire side of your jug  Representational of a person OR animal; this can be an expressive realistic vision or an expressive representation completed in the traditional style of Folk Art Face Jugs  Is creative and unique  A minimum of 8 inches tall

Brief History of Face Jugs In the United States, face jugs were made in North and South Carolina beginning around 1810. Between 1810 and 1865, an abundance of functional was produced in the remote in North and South Carolina and was sold to neighboring states. It quickly spread throughout the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, resulting in the production of thousands of distinct face jugs of all sizes, shapes and designs.

The Edgefield area in South Carolina is endowed with rich resources including massive deposits of kaolin, sands, feldspars, and pine trees, all necessary for making pottery. The heart of the Edgefield tradition involved manufacture of ware using what is termed today "alkaline" glaze. Edgefield potters took basically feldspar, wood ashes, lime, and sand - grinding and blended it to make a crude glaze. Most typically formed were storage jars from one-half to thirty gallons commonly used for pickling, salting meat, and storing lard. Also formed were jugs for holding vinegars, wines, pitchers, pans, and bowls for the kitchen.

The Old Edgefield District birthed a stoneware tradition of making vessels with African slave labor. Edgefield Potteries was worked in part by artisan slaves who turned the pots, pushed the wheels, carried the pottery and loaded the . In their free time, some of the artisans made pottery of their own choice. Many of them chose to make jugs and pots now known as Face Jugs. One black slave potter named only as Dave was one of the most industrious potter’s of his day, he made large storage jars, and was known to write poems on some, and– he signed and dated many others, his pottery is in demand from- collectors- as well as –museums. Two other African slave artists named Craig and Meaders could barely get 25 cents for their jugs while they were alive, and now, their jugs sell for four and five digit prices.

These jugs were made of stoneware and were modeled in the shape of human faces. They were most often alkaline glazed stoneware in simple, earthy tones.

Though there are many gaps in historical data regarding the making, use and meaning of the face jug, there is no doubt that the vessels were original, functional, utilitarian artistic expressions of the African slave culture of the time. The origins of the face jug, a folk tradition among African American potters in the South, remain obscure. Whether the pieces were intended as representations of actual people or not do not diminish the artistry and beautifully sculpted and often abstract features that bind Southern face jugs as a folk art or their popularity among collectors. This all adds to the mystery of possible deeper meaning of the Face Vessels in the slave culture. Only a few of the skilled potters who made Face Jugs have been identified by name and their inspiration for making face vessels is really unknown. 2

Face Jugs have been found along the routes of the Underground Railroad and on gravesites, both indicating how highly they were valued and how closely connected they were with the enslaved African American’s own culture.

Many of the early pieces were small in scale. They were thrown on the wheel in the harvest jug style where there is an overhead strap handle on the body of the pot off set with one or more spouts. Teeth and eyes were made from white kaolin clay to contrast the darker color of the stoneware clay. These early pieces were glazed with alkaline glazes and fired in large wood burning kilns.

As competition increased, potters - around the 1840’s - began to decorate their wares using iron slip and kaolin based white slips resulting in objects today that are avidly sought and esteemed by scholars and collectors.

Time brought many changes. The death knell of many potters across the country came with the invention of the Mason screw top jar in 1858. Combined with the move from the farm to the city, the breakup of the plantations, and the slave economy after the Civil War, the traditions of many of the potteries almost went into extinction. There were a few remaining families that carried on the tradition.

Among several notable artisans from pottery families are Lanier Meaders of Georgia, The Owens and Kings Pottery of North Carolina, who are largely responsible for the increased popularity of the jugs since the 1970’s.

As interesting as the faces on the jugs are the faces behind the contemporary jugs. Many of today's producers of face jugs are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the potters who started this tradition hundreds of years ago.

Folk Lore Associated with Face Jugs – aka “Ugly Jugs” Ugly jugs or mugs became an American folk art tradition beginning in the 1800s. The time and place this tradition began depends on your source, and the jugs had several purposes which could all be valid. Folk lore handed down generation to generation told that slaves made ugly jugs to distinguish the different liquids inside. Jugs with faces were for the ones you couldn’t drink, like ones filled with kerosene. According to family folk lore, ugly jugs were also used by slaves as grave markers, made ugly to scare the devil away. It is also said that ugly jugs were used to keep kids out of the moonshine. They were made as scary as possible for this purpose.

The most common stories are that they were invented as a way to warn children of the poisonous contents of the jars (be it arsenic or moonshine) or that they were meant to keep away evil spirits from the graves of family members.