The History of Face Jugs
Of the many crafts indigenous to the mountains of north Georgia and Western North Carolina , the most interesting is the face jug. No one is 100% certain of how it originated, but two stories in particular seem to capture some of the mystique surrounding these oddly humorous creations. The first is that folks of Appalachia keep their moonshine in jugs designed with scary faces to keep kids from sampling the jugs contents. (The face jug, different from the other jugs in the house served as an early child proof cap.)
The second story has to do with devil jugs, or scary faces jugs with devil horns. The story is that these devil jugs originated in slave communities and when someone died, a devil jug was made and placed on the grave for one year. If the jug broke sometime during the year, it meant that the deceased was wrestling with the devil. Generations of families in North Georgia and Western North Carolina farmed and threw pots for their livelihood. Today, contemporary potters such as William Flowers, have resurrected the interest in face jugs and some of the face jugs of the older generation of potters, (such as Craig, Meaders and Brown all now deceased), who at one time could hardly get 25 cents for their jugs are now selling for up to five figures.
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