Face Jugs From the Stacey and Michael Burke Collection

Face Jugs from the Stacey and Michael Burke Collection offers a unique selection of a singular form in Southern ceramics, as rich in cultural history as in visual impact. This grouping includes works by celebrated makers such as Lanier Meaders, Jerry Brown, Burlon Craig, Marie Rogers and Albert Hodge, among others—each bringing their own interpretation to a tradition that spans centuries.

The face jug’s roots reach far beyond the American South. Variants of anthropomorphic ceramics have existed in cultures across the globe—from ancient Greek pottery to medieval German Bartmann jugs—but this particular tradition emerged in the South in the mid-19th century among enslaved Black potters, especially in South Carolina’s Edgefield district. Those early face jugs were wheel-thrown in stoneware and decorated with facial features made from kaolin clay, a material with deep spiritual resonance in West African traditions. Scholars believe these vessels may have served multipurpose roles—both practical and symbolic—and most likely served as ritual objects charged with meaning and power.

By the late 19th and early 20th century, white Southern potters began to appropriate the face jug form, although generally without kaolin and detached from its original spiritual associations. These adaptations shifted the jug from ritual or utilitarian object to decorative vernacular art – especially as the demand for traditional stoneware declined with industrialization and the rise of mass-produced containers.

Lanier Meaders (1917–1998) stands out as one of the most influential figures in the revival and reinvention of the face jug tradition in the 20th century. Working in his family’s Georgia pottery, Meaders elevated the form through expressive and often grotesque heads executed in classic alkaline glazes. His mastery helped fuel a broader appreciation of Southern folk pottery among collectors and museums, earning him national recognition.

Burlon Craig (1914–2002) of North Carolina also played a pivotal role in securing the face jug’s place in the late 20th-century folk revival. His pieces married traditional Catawba Valley pottery techniques with the evocative faces that had once been associated primarily with Georgia and South Carolina, attracting new collectors and sustaining interest in the genre.

The Brown Family pottery is a multi-generational tradition founded in North Carolina with a branch in Alabama. They made their first face jug (a devil jug, to be precise) in the 1920s, placing it outside the front door to attract customers. The Browns’ jugs often feature unique variations of the face motif, demonstrating how individual family styles contribute to the tradition’s diversity.

Makers like Marie Rogers and Albert Hodge illustrate the creative breadth of face jug making in the late 20th century. Rogers (1922–2010), one of the few women working in a predominantly male folk pottery world, brought her own sensibility to the form, producing jugs that stand out for their personality and craftsmanship. Meanwhile, Hodge, active in North Carolina, is known for inventive designs that blend traditional forms with whimsical or even mythic elements, often featuring bold, easily recognizable glaze treatments.

Face Jugs from the Stacey and Michael Burke Collection celebrates a significant gift of Southern ceramics to Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s holdings and traces the development of the face jug in the second half of the 20th century. This exhibition centers the face jug in dialogues about craft, cultural memory, cultural appropriation, family traditions and the development of vernacular art forms.