Old Jug

Probably was a used for homemade wine. Much other stuff in the vicinity or just totally random find?

Sherman neck ties are pretty cool --definitely need to get one if you can...

That would be a stacker jug.

Jugs were made with rounded tops at one time. Like the local Crawford county Georgia jugs. They had to be fired in a single layer. That took a lot of wood. So potters started using a jig to turn them in uniform sizes. And if you notice where the cone top met the sides there is a ledge or lip. A pre fired collar was placed on that lip, extending above the cone, and another jug was placed on top. Then they could be stacked up multiple jugs high. Many more fit in the kiln at one time. Not as personal as the old green ones, with round tops and actually hand made glazes that varied in colors too, nor as valuable, but I still like them. I kept two stackers and had to sell the high end ones. Ah well, at least I paid the bills. Look for a stamp bottom, sides or handle, some had them. Some of them can bring good money, and even broken handles for repairs sell. The glaze looks like Albany slip which was a commercial glaze. Pottery eventually gave way to machine made glass. Pottery was a cheap commodity due to Georgia and other states abundant clay deposits. A good read is Brothers in Clay, a history of southern potters from the 1800s.

A note: the bootleggers used them during prohibition ,and revenue agents traced the potters marks back to the potters to go after the moonshiners. So pottery marks disappeared, and soon the unmarked and stackers were the norm. Then came glass.

Small guage railroad track made into a bow can be collectible, if you can get the heavy thing out. A piece of history, even if Yankee made...

Jugs were all over the country so not easily ID . What are Sherman neckties , your not talking about the twisted rails when he destroyed the railroad lines ?
Yankee here !
HH

This was found in the swamp down in Mississippi on the Mississippi river. I've only been in there once with the detector so far and found about 12 railroad spikes in one area near one of the neckties. There were 3 different sized spikes. I figured they used whatever they could find. Looking forward to going back in there.

Thanks for the details. This is why I enjoy these forums. I'm going to go back and look for the rest of it. Had to wait for the flood water to recede. So what would be an approximate date of manufacture, roughly.

dixiedigger57 said:

That would be a stacker jug.

Jugs were made with rounded tops at one time. Like the local Crawford county Georgia jugs. They had to be fired in a single layer. That took a lot of wood. So potters started using a jig to turn them in uniform sizes. And if you notice where the cone top met the sides there is a ledge or lip. A pre fired collar was placed on that lip, extending above the cone, and another jug was placed on top. Then they could be stacked up multiple jugs high. Many more fit in the kiln at one time. Not as personal as the old green ones, with round tops and actually hand made glazes that varied in colors too, nor as valuable, but I still like them. I kept two stackers and had to sell the high end ones. Ah well, at least I paid the bills. Look for a stamp bottom, sides or handle, some had them. Some of them can bring good money, and even broken handles foe repairs sell. The glaze looks like Albany slip which was a commercial glaze. Pottery eventually gave way to machine made glass. Pottery was a cheap commodity due to Georgia and other states abundant clay deposits. A good read is Brothers in Clay, a history of southern potters from the 1800s.

A note: the bootleggers used them during prohibition ,and revenue agents traced the potters marks back to the potters to go after the moonshiners. So pottery marks disappeared, and soon the unmarked, then stackers were the norm. Then came glass.

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Saw the jug buried near the surface. Went in with the detector and found spikes. Going back in a couple of weeks to see if there's other stuff.

Diggler said:

Probably was a used for homemade wine. Much other stuff in the vicinity or just totally random find?

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That would be correct.

Ricki7 said:

Jugs were all over the country so not easily ID . What are Sherman neckties , your not talking about the twisted rails when he destroyed the railroad lines ?
Yankee here !
HH

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Late 1800 up to Prohibition or a little past it. There were some big commercial potters out there. The glazes were sometimes local browns but Albany was available. Folk potters still copy them. Look up Crawford county Georgia pottery.beautiful stuff.

Look for a dumpsite there! Make a hardware cloth wooden box hand sifter. could be a trash pit. Look for cinders, ashes, glass frags,etc and dig, detect, and sift!! Collect some spikes to make knives out of! Great site ! Happy hunting and hope you make many finds.!

I do a lot of woods-walking and see many jugs/crockery but they're almost always broken. But, they can be a telltale sign of dumps or early activity so search around for other debris/relics.

Love the history you guy's get to hunt in . Are the spikes much different than the ones they are using today ?
HH

They look like standard railroad spikes. Some are miniature though. The largest looked to be the correct size of a modern railroad today.

Congrats on a great old find!