Jug
Westerwald, Germany; 1725–50
Stoneware, salt glaze
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight P. Lanmon1992.0124
While archaeological evidence indicates that jugs like the one marked “GR” were found in many homes in America, this one was made as many as thirty-five years before the House for Families was built. Probably celebrating King George I or II of England, the object was made in Germany and would have been acquired by consumers in British colonies and in places where they traded.
The fragmentary ceramic shown here was excavated at Mount Vernon’s Mansion Farm in Virginia and is from a context associated with the “House for Families” site. That building, in existence by around 1760 and demolished in 1792-93, was where many of the Mansion House Farm’s enslaved people resided. The intact Winterthur object shown here illustrates the approximate appearance of the fragmentary one, before it was damaged and discarded.