German, Frechen
Greybeard Jug (Bartmannkrüge), early 17th century
Salt-glazed stoneware, 43.2 cm (17 in.)
This is a salt-glazed stoneware German Greybeard jug that has a dark brown glaze over a lighter tan surface. The jug’s neck is adorned with an image of a bearded face. Below, at the widest part of the jug, is a stamped crest and crown oval motif. Each side has a small stamped circular seal. The grooved handle is on the small neck of the jug. There is a small hole on the back of the body of the jug.
Dutch Room
Commentary
Nicknamed "Greybeard Jugs" for their caricature-like masks, these seventeenth-century stoneware bottles produced in northern Europe were popular containers for liquids thanks to their impervious salt glaze. Brought across the Atlantic during the Revolutionary War, this pot was discovered by a Boston construction firm in the 1870s while digging foundations on the former site of the Brattle Square Church (today City Hall), a building occupied by British troops in 1775. Here in the Dutch Room, elevated on a cabinet into the array of distinguished portraits, the hairy, wild man pokes fun at the serious aristocrats he accompanies.