Stoneware is a clay body that becomes watertight when fired at high temperatures, making it desirable for dry and liquid storage. Typically, cobalt oxide was used as decoration because of the pleasing contrast of the dark blue against the gray body. It was an expensive glaze and usually used sparingly to name businesses or potters, and for decoration of flowers, birds, and animals. Pieces commissioned for special occasions might display a more extravagant use of cobalt with inscriptions or motifs specific to the event being commemorated. And more infrequently, it was used to express a particular sentiment on the part of the maker or recipient. The year 1857, which is noted on this jug, was a critical time of growing sectionalism in American politics and divisive events that moved the nation inexorably toward civil war. In 1857, the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case ruled that "persons of African descent," all black Americans, could not become citizens under the United States Constitution, that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories covered by the Missouri Compromise, and that an enslaved person did not become free upon entering into a free state. By declaring the Missouri Compromise illegal, the balance between slaveholding and free territories was threatened as they sought statehood, with economic implications that contributed to the financial Panic of 1857. In this year, the nativist anti-Catholic, anti-immigration Know Nothing Party (also known as the American Party) lost its bid for the presidency with the ticket of Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson. "Aries B. Donelson," whose name appears twice on this vessel inscribed in a spidery script, has not been identified, though it is likely he is a member of the extended Donelson family of Tennessee who figured largely in American politics. The letter "L" is flourished multiple times across the front. An allusion to "Governor Pain" and the word "Democracy" further suggest an impassioned political stance whose meaning remains cryptic.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Political Harvest Jug," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.