Jug

This is a typical example of the nineteenth-century functional wares produced in great quantities at the Miles Mill Pottery, a site of stoneware production located in current day Trenton, SC (formerly part of the Old Edgefield District). Archeological evidence from this site includes many fragments with a very similar spout and handle and deep brown uniform glaze, distinctive features that closely relate to several extant face vessels, making possible the attribution to that site of production.




This jug is a reminder that all face vessels attributed to Edgefield-area potteries started as simple thrown utilitarian jugs, their animating hand-modeled facial features in high relief a conscious deviation by the potter, resulting in something wholly different in function and meaning. A close comparison between this jug and an Edgefield face vessel in the Met’s collection (22.24.6) shows distinctive similarities in form and components, namely the spout and the applied handle.