World's Ugliest Jugs

Miss C wrote a highly entertaining article for our blog pal mental_floss: a list of the world's ugliest jugs (real jugs, you perv!) They're ceramic jugs with faces - really ugly ones:

Jerry Brown heard that slaves made ugly jugs to distinguish the different liquids inside. Jugs with faces were for the ones you couldn’t drink, such as kerosene.

Potter Jim McDowell heard the history of the jugs handed down through generations. According to family lore, ugly jugs were used by slaves as grave markers, made ugly to scare the devil away. McDowell’s face jugs include messages, like this one that says “Don’t judge the color of my skin; judge me by the content of my character.”

According to Pawprint Pottery of Barnwell, South Carolina, ugly jugs were used to keep kids out of the moonshine. They were made as scary as possible for this purpose! These jugs with recycled porcelain teeth would do the trick.

These ones above (probably the prettiest of the bunch) are made by Georgia artist Brian Wilson.

Link


I've always found these jugs interesting. You can purachase some ugly jugs at the Henry Ford Museum or Greenfield Village shops in the Detroit area. Artisans hand make them there. Their's are my favorite too. The bigger ones have little metal spouts inserted at the bottom so you can use them like a water cooler.
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