Face Jugs

Ceramic vessels containing facial elements or facial representation have a long history dating back to the Greeks during the Archaic Period. But the term Face Jugs was coined by decorative art historians to refer to a pottery type created by the African enslaved community, specifically in the Edgefield district of South Carolina. Although this term is used more widely now to describe Face Jugs made by any maker from any region. Face Jugs first appeared in the American South in the mid-1800s.

Face Jugs are small vessels made from turned (wheel thrown) stoneware and contain facial features usually including wide eyes and bared teeth.

Historians originally believed that the jugs were utilitarian and were used to store water. Other theories surfaced as scholars speculated that the vessels may have religious or burial significance. New research has shown that the vessels were most likely multipurpose and a coded object meant to be misunderstood.

Historically, elements of the Face Jugs (often the eyes and teeth) were made from kaolin (kay uh luhn), a locally sourced clay, also found in West Africa, that held significant spiritual power. Kaolin was regarded as a substance that could charge the vessel with sacred or supernatural energy.

By the end of the 1800s white southern potters had begun to appropriate the face jug designs made by African enslaved people. But without the use of kaolin the vessels lost the symbolic power of their original form.

One of the most important contemporary potters Jim McDowell, known as the “Black Potter” shared his family’s oral history about the jugs on his website blackpotter.com. There Jim recounts the story told by his great grandfather of how the pots were made to memorialize individuals since enslaved people were not allowed to have tombstones. The jugs were designed to be ugly enough to scare away the devil so the person’s soul would ascend to heaven.