Jug

Artist/Maker
Mareschal (Marshall), Augustin
Place Made
Fairhope or Montrose, Baldwin County Alabama United States of America
Date Made
1830-1850
Medium
salt-glazed stoneware
Dimensions
__14 1/2″
Accession Number
6094
Description
DESCRIPTION: Ovoid salt-glazed stoneware jug with pronounced lip and shaped handle in imitation of extruded design. Stamped on shoulder “BAMA-CITY” over a curled number “2”. Soft blue leaves curl up the sides of the vessel, culminating in dotted arcs that echo the overall shape of the object. This may represent a cotton plant: the tulip-like shapes resemble the bolls that eventually mature into billowy puffs of fibers, and the dashed arches could arguably represent that later stage of development.

MAKER: Augustin Mareschal (b. 1810) and his family immigrated to the eastern shore of Mobile Bay from France and brought with them a distinctively European stoneware tradition. This two-gallon jug’s graceful ovoid silhouette, high handle placement, and use of salt glaze (as opposed to the more prevalent alkaline glaze in Alabama), bears strong resemblance to the wares they had known and produced prior to their arrival. It is clearly rooted in its Alabama origins: across the shoulder, the maker boldly marked it “BAMA-CITY,” an early name for the area now known as Fairhope in Baldwin County, Alabama. The potter applied cobalt decoration that may depict a cotton plant with bolls in varying stages of development.

The Mareschal name appears in later records as “Marshall.”

For a similar jug attributed to the Mareschal/Marshall shop, see Joey Brackner, “Alabama Folk Pottery,” 2006, pg. 79.

Credit Line
MESDA purchase fund, in honor of Joey Brackner