'These really are ugly," I say out loud, wandering among shelves filled with stout little crockery jugs sprouting hideous facial features, each one more grotesque than the next.
The local woman next to me stiffens at my comment, but there's no question that the creators of this unusual art are into scary one-upmanship. That's the point of my pilgrimage to Seagrove, N.C., the back-woods home of generations of humble crafts folk who have long used the local clay to fashion rustic, utilitarian stoneware, from whisky jugs to butter churns, bowls and other assorted household crockery perfect for Halloween parties.
"The likeness was done to scare kids away from poisons and old-timey white lightning," says potter Annie King, whose husband, Terry, has become famous for his contemporary face jugs. "Now, it's a form of Southern folk art."
This Seagrove gallery is brimming with examples. There are small jugs you can hold in the palm of your hand, tall cylindrical jugs appropriate for toting, and massive jugs for standing in the storeroom. These handmade, everyday vessels have little in common, except for their unique, three-dimensional decoration: hooked noses, bulging eyes and gaping mouths filled with jagged teeth that give these face jugs their frightening presence and strange, collectible appeal.
I had seen an early example of this southern American art form on an episode of TV's Antique Road Show. It was large -- probably around 60 centimetres tall -- and sported the typical dark brown "tobacco spit" glaze still used in these parts. It was ugly, too, with that kind of truly tacky, 1960s rumpus-room look that you're likely to uncover at flea markets and suburban garage sales.
It had been picked up for a song at just that kind of sale. Imagine the owner's surprise when the antique expert dubbed his find valuable "American folk art," dated it back to the mid-1800s and slapped a price of $50,000 (all amounts in U.S. dollars) on it.
I was sufficiently intrigued to head down the road from Raleigh to explore the source of this off-beat tradition. The face jug is a rare curiosity. Still, there's no question that a 60-centimetre-tall ugly jug is not the kind of thing you would really want hanging around your house.
"They're hideous," I remark again, then backtrack quickly when I catch my southern guide's steely eye. "In a cool sort of way, I mean."
The provenance of these pieces is definitely cool. And it really is cool to find a modern generation of potters making cups, bowls and jugs the same way their distant forefathers did, and firing them with old-fashioned salt glazes in big wood-fired groundhog kilns.
Like the basic brown jugs you find in local antique stores, some dating back 200 years, these families of potters have been "turning" out here in the back woods of North Carolina for generations.
They came because of the local clay, and stayed until "modern" materials, such as glass and plastic, ended a century of demand for their functional pottery containers and household goods. A few persevered, though, creating art pottery after the First World War, and ensuring that, even today, the Seagrove name is synonymous with stoneware. The area remains one of the largest and oldest communities of working potters in the United States.
Not only are the local face jugs collectible, but collectors from across the country also come to Seagrove for the spring "kiln openings," when potters reveal their latest creations. And they gather at big antique sales, like the massive outdoor Liberty Antiques Festival, to pick up pieces of old Jugtown Pottery signed by early artisans such as Edward Webster and Gurdon Robins, or later masters such as Dorothy Auman and Ben Owen. Face jugs made by one of the first black potters, known only as "Dave the Slave," fetch the highest prices, but some of the most dramatic are the fire-engine-red "devil" jugs, complete with horns, made by Burlon Craig, a beloved septuagenarian potter who died last year.
Seagrove's potters' enclave is a scattered rural commune 30 kilometres south of Asheboro, or about 90 minutes from Raleigh by car. At a crossroads (and the town's only traffic light), you'll find several shops where a selection of work by local potters is shown. But the most fun is seeing potters "turning" in their home studios, garages, shacks and shelters dotting the rolling countryside, or signing up for a hands-on holiday to learn to "turn and burn" your own rustic stoneware. At every corner, you'll come upon a cluster of hand-made signs, pointing the way to more country artisans, and studios with names like Pot Luck and Jug-or-Not.
There are more than 95 potteries in and around Seagrove; some estimate as many as 500 potters work in this small rural area. Some learned their craft at the knees of parents and grandparents, others have been formally trained at art schools. Most are in their studios throwing and glazing daily, and will stop to explain their work to anyone who shows up.
Some, like Kit Vanderwal, even offer learning vacations and, for $50 a day, will take in budding artists for informal one-on-one instruction. I was at the wheel at his home studio, getting a lesson in throwing a cylinder while he told me about his own obsession with face jugs.
"The tradition goes back to Louisiana, to the 1700s. They were grave markers designed to keep bad spirits away," says Vanderwal of the hideous faces that were also common in Georgia. "Here, they were made for wine, spirits and poisons. The uglier the jug the better, because you didn't want your kids getting into your liquor.
"See how he comes to life?" he adds, fastening a pair of oversized lips onto his latest creation.
Vanderwal is a newcomer to Seagrove, pursuing a second career in clay. But many of the potters here are from the original potting families, fiercely proud of the skills they are preserving.
When I met Terry King and he showed me the authentic wood-fired, tunnel-shaped kiln he uses to salt glaze the jugs he makes in the tradition of his mentors, big name Seagrove potters such as Joe Owen and Dot Auman, something strange happened. I began to truly appreciate his humorously hideous brown faces, with their rows of jagged teeth made from broken china plates.
And despite his wife's warning -- "they're like jelly beans, if you buy one, you'll buy more" -- I couldn't leave without one of his smallest specimens tucked into my bag.
My ugly jug now has a prominent place in the kitchen at the cabin. Yes, it's homely, but in a good way.
If you go
WHERE TO SHOP
King's Pottery: (336) 873-8733; http://www.kingspottery.com.
Pott's Pottery: (336) 873-9660; http://www.pottspottery.com.
Phil Morgan Pottery: (336) 873-7304; http://www.seagroverpotteries.com.
Liberty Antiques Festival: (336) 622-3040.
Collector's Antique Mall: 211 Sunset Ave., Asheboro; (336) 629-8105; http://www.collectorsantiquemall.com. THINGS TO DO
North Carolina Pottery Centre: 250 East Ave., Seagrove, N.C.; (336) 873-8430; http://www.ncpotterycenter.com. Covers the history of Seagrove potteries and organizes tours and lessons with local potters.
For a speedy shopping tour, local resident Roger Brittingham offers guided trips through his Out & About Tours: (336) 879-5777; http://www.clayseeker.com.
INFORMATION
Randolph County Tourism Development Authority: