Skip Navigation

Jug

Decorative Arts and Design

The unusual imagery on this jug of coiling snakes, frogs, and turtles intended to suggest the nightmarish delirium brought on by alcohol abuse. Such vessels are illustrative of the temperance movement in the United States in the nineteenth century—which was second only to slavery as a burning social issue. The best known of these vessels were produced by Warren V. Kirkpatrick at the Anna Pottery in Illinois and probably influenced the potter of jug.

CULTURE American
MEDIUM Earthenware
  • Possible Place Made: Ohio, United States
  • DATES 1860–1880
    DIMENSIONS Height: 11 in. (27.9 cm) Diameter of base: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Unmarked
    ACCESSION NUMBER 44.1.20a-b
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Arthur W. Clement
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Slip glazed red earthenware jug (a) with cover (b). Jug: grotesque, so-called Delirium Tremens, applied design of snakes, frogs, and men. Cover in form of frog. Condition: Good
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION American. Jug, 1860–1880. Earthenware, Height: 11 in. (27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arthur W. Clement, 44.1.20a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 44.1.20a-b_PS1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 44.1.20a-b_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2005
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.