Backcountry Notes

Jug turned by Waymon Cole, J. B. Cole Pottery.One of my favorite art pottery forms is the jug -- you know, the fat bottle with a handle, used for storing whiskey and cider and syrup and such.  Like the pitcher, this utilitarian form was dressed up in colorful glazes early in the North Carolina art pottery era, transforming an everyday object into a work of art.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view.

Jugs played a major role in the history and development of North Carolina pottery.  Early on, jugs were made for household and commercial use. Following the Civil War, the manufacture of jugs for the whiskey trade became a major cottage industry in the central Piedmont. In the area of Asheboro-Whynot-Westmoore, stoneware jugs were turned and fired in great numbers; sadly, very little of this production remains intact.

Left: A 19th-century stoneware jug with cobalt decoration. The brown ash discoloration was considered a flaw at the time but now adds interest to the piece because it bears witness to how it was made.. 

Those who made jugs for the whiskey trade generally were not full-time potters but were farmers who produced salt-glazed stoneware as a supplemental source of income. The jug-makers were folk potters in the pure sense, felling trees and erecting their own sheds, making bricks and building groundhog kilns, making their own tools, digging and processing local clays, and firing their wares with wood cut on the farm.  Very little up-front cash was required for such things as turning-wheel axles and once the business was underway only salt had to be purchased from outside sources.

Above: Two aspects of a salt-glazed stoneware jug with brushed-on cobalt oxide decoration, from Jugtown Pottery. 

The Central and Western North Carolina areas were home to many traditional Backcountry-settler families who owned small farms but were multi-talented folk -- farmer-craftsmen, farmer-artisans, and farmer-tradesmen.  By combining farming with a variety of home-based industries, they  maintained interdependence within their communities but remained at least somewhat independent of the outside world. See The Other South.

Above: An art-pottery jug from the 1930s, displayed with vintage vases in colorful glazes. 

Right: Two salt-glazed jugs by M. L. Owens.  The jug on the right is 13 inches high and is decorated with cobalt and iron oxide. 

The whiskey-jug trade thrived for a half-century following the end of the Civil War.  M. L. Owens estimated that when he was a lad there were as many as 75 kilns firing in the Whynot-Westmoore area.  Even though most of these belonged to part-time potters, it is safe to estimate that production over five decades was in the millions of pieces.  By and large, the jugs were unmarked and fairly uniform in size and style, making them difficult to identify.  The jugs were wholesaled to the whiskey trade and put into use, resulting in a high rate of loss over the years. The relatively rare salt-glazed jugs which are marked or otherwise identifiable have become valued collectors' items.

Left: Art-pottery jug by Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery. 

North Carolina adopted prohibition of "ardent spirits" in 1908 and national prohibition of alcoholic beverages was enacted in 1919.  Even so, it was most likely the advent of the Mason jar, and not Prohibition, that doomed the production of salt-glazed stoneware jugs.  Prohibition simply meant that potters sold to a special class of customers -- the unregulated underground of the whiskey trade. After he established his art-pottery operation in 1922, J. B. Cole continued to make salt-glazed stoneware in his original groundhog kiln into the 1930s, selling jugs to moonshiners.

Above: Modern-era alkaline-glazed jugs from the Catawba Valley. Left, jug with glass runs, made by Hal Dedmond. Right, jug with ash-glaze runs, made by Steve Abee. 

One important legacy of the era of salt-glazed whiskey jug production was the goodly number of skilled potters who turned wares of near-uniform quality at a high rate of production. Many of these remarkable turners went into the art-pottery trade in the early 1920s and their considerable talents made North Carolina the predominant producer of such pottery for many decades.  It is an enduring testament to the skills of these potters that they were able to compete with machine-made wares from the Ohio Valley and later from east Asia.

Above: Miniature "cider-sample" jugs made by Dorothy Auman for C. C. Cole Pottery. The jugs are about two inches high and are pictured for perspective with a 3-3/4 inch high cider jug by the same potter. 

The transition from salt-glazed utilitarian stoneware to art-pottery earthenware during the 1920s was not limited to the vases and urns and bowls favored by Northern art-pottery manufacturers.  The North Carolina potters continued turning traditional forms -- jugs, pitchers, churns, storage jars, pie plates, mugs, and many more -- but dressed them out in the new, colorful glazes. Jugs were made in every practical size, from two-inch-high miniatures to huge pieces with multi-gallon capacities.
Some of the potters transformed salt-glazed wares into art pottery, of course, often using cobalt and iron oxides for decoration, thus preserving the historical link. More recently, there has been a revival of the alkaline-glazed wares of western North Carolina.

Above: Two small, vintage jugs from Western North Carolina.  Left: made by Pisgah Forest Pottery; right: made by Brown's Pottery. 

Right: A C. C. Cole "honey jug" made for the tourist-pottery trade. 

Vintage art pottery jugs include large numbers made for the tourist pottery market; see C. C. Cole "Tourist" Pottery. In the modern era, art-pottery jugs are made in several traditional styles -- colorfully-glazed earthenware; wood-fired, salt-glazed stoneware; alkaline-glazed stoneware from the Catawba Valley -- and in newer high-fired, colorfully-glazed stoneware. 

J. B. Cole jug flanked by a pair of jugs modified to serve as candle-lanterns. The candleholder ring was formed in the bottom before the walls were pulled up to make the jug; after the jug was finished, one side was cut out to complete the piece.  These examples were made by Waymon Cole.

Two small, blue art-pottery jugs.  Left: rutile-blue stoneware by Whynot Pottery. Right: "Chinese Blue" earthenware by North State Pottery.

Jugs on display atop a mantelpiece.  Left: earthenware jug by M. L. Owens; second and third from left: stoneware, by Mark Heywood; second from right: earthenware, Seagrove Pottery; far right: high-fired earthenware, Waymon Cole.

Right: Three jugs by Waymon Cole. Although it was more often used with other colored glazes to create a variety of double-dipped effects, J. B. Cole Pottery's fritted-lead "whitey-white" was a dressy art-pottery glaze in its own right.

Two contemporary art-pottery jugs. Left: made by Matthew Nance; right: made by Mark Heywood.

Stoneware jugs by Donna Craven, Asheboro, NC; displayed with other wood-fired, salt-glazed pieces.

Four contemporary stoneware jugs by Mark Heywood, made with iron oxide and wood-ash glazes.

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