Did you see the memory jug, my auction-buddy Rebecca asked as I was examining items in the back room of the auction house. To be honest, I had no idea what a memory jug was but was not surprised that she did.
She’s the one who reads and researches everything – thoroughly and quickly – and has most of it tucked inside her head. I’ve been pushing her to put it on paper.
I had not seen the memory jug, but I was sure I’d recognize it when I saw it. It apparently was a stoneware jug to which folks attached small items that meant something to them.
I continued browsing in the back room and finally made it to the room where the jug was located. Before I got there, though, I stopped to look at some stoneware jugs, which I love. I have several that I’ve positioned in front of my fireplace, and I’ve seen others in an exhibit. The best were made by David Drake – known as Dave the Potter – an African American man who created them from the 1830s to 1860s. I went to see an exhibit of his works some years ago.
As I walked around the second room, I spotted what I figured was the memory jug. In the dim light, it was a mess: muddy and dirty. It didn’t look like much until I got closer. Embedded in the dirt were a number of small items resembling debris: thread spool, comb, nails and screws, small circular mirror, broken clay pipe, walnuts, button, the broken and rusty rims of eyeglasses, a small cup and a vintage padlock.
On one side was a green sticker – someone had left an absentee bid.
This jug was probably dug out of the ground, Rebecca said, explaining its appearance. She was probably right; it looked as if it had been buried for a long long time. The vintage padlock, eyeglasses and a few other items also indicated to me that this memory jug had some age on it.
At some point, the jug was probably a poignant sight, its array of items either telling one person’s story or no person’s story, just a haphazard mix of items that happened to be on hand. Either way, it was representative of folk art, just as the face jugs prominent in the South.
Its appearance was a far cry from the memory jugs I found on the web. They were elaborate and in good clean condition, and they looked to be newer. Many contained gems, small vintage photos in frames, tiny dolls, buttons and beads.
Memory jugs have their origin with the Bakongo peoples who lived on the Atlantic coast of Africa in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. Enslaved Africans brought the art of memory jugs with them to America. Found primarily in the South, the jugs were said to have been used as grave decorations. The Bakongos believed that the spirit world was inverted and that they were connected to it by water. So they placed such items as jugs, pitchers and vases on the graves to help the dead through the watery afterlife. They also broke some items to decorate the jugs to release the spirit so it could travel in the afterlife.
The items on the jugs were pieces from the person’s life that they may need in the afterlife. The items were attached with such materials as putty, cement, plaster, mortar and river clay, and they were affixed upside down. Sometimes, lacquer or gold paint was applied to enhance the jug.
Memory jugs went by several names, including memory vessel, mourning jug, forget-me-not jug, spirit jar and ugly jar. Most are not marked. They were put atop graves or kept in the home.
One site mentioned a grave decoration in which a man paid homage to his deceased mother by turning a chair upside down on her grave and placing her clothes on top of it. Spirits can sometimes become disturbed when others handle their belongings, according to the article, and the aim was to quiet her spirit.
During the Victorian period, as scrapbooking became popular, others began making memory jugs. The jugs were said to have resurfaced in popularity among African Americans and Appalachians in the 1950s and 1960s.
As for the jug at auction, most of the items on it didn’t appear to be inverted, and they didn’t seem to represent just one person’s life. By the time this jug was created, the focus may have been on scrapbooking rather than grave-decorating.
