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There are several stories of the history of the face jug. The origins of the “ugly” face jug tradition are mysterious.
One story of the History of Face Jugs goes like this:
In the past people put moonshine in pottery jugs. Children had a habit of getting into everything including this moonshine. Therefore, the potters put ugly faces on the jugs in order to scare the children away from the moonshine.
Another story of the History of Face Jugs goes like this:
The ugly faces were made on the jugs and put at gravesites to scare the evil spirits away.
The tradition of pottery with faces dates back to Egyptian times and appears in many other cultures throughout the ages. The first vessel created in the US was created by an unknown Massachusetts potter around 1810.
Today, face jugs are prized by collectors around the United States for their comical and sincere facial expressions.
Here are some interesting links about the history of face jugs:
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/Folklife/FolkArt&id=h-461
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/Folklife/FolkArt&id=h-545
