Coming Together: The BAMA-CITY Jug

Jug

circa 1840

Attributed to Augustin Mareschal (later Marshall) (b. 1810) Pottery

Fairhope or Montrose, Baldwin County, Alabama

Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration

MESDA (6094), MESDA purchase fund in honor of Joey Brackner

 

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.