Animal and Human Faces in English Pottery

Sculpting animals and human faces onto pots has been going on since the dawn of time. It's not surprising to see it on pots from around the world.

Here are some 13th-14th century English examples of jugs that have anthropomorphic and human qualities to them.



Ram's Head jug.

There are holes in the nostrils so that liquid pours out through them. And yes, this is completely historically correct and disgusting at the same time. Think about Gothic gargoyles on Churches and you have the same principle. Jugs with mouths open, pitchers holding water in the form of animals called Aquamaniles, were used throughout the Middle Ages.



Gentleman Jug... heh.

I originally was going to name him man jug, but that sounded wrong. I don't know what he was called. I only have a cut out picture of him. I do believe he might have been a soldier, but this is a guess. There is a lot of clay manipulation on him, both attaching parts and pushing out to sculpt out his chin and cheeks.

These are just my more recent ones.

Raeren & German Pots

The Museum of London has an enormous collection online of their ceramic pieces, which is very cool when one is trying to recreate the past. I used to buy books (well, still do) whenever I could with whatever information (good or bad) on pottery from all time periods. Because the Museum of London has such a wonderful collection, I now am far more picky with what I need to purchase (which helps my wallet, let me tell you).

Between 1200 and 1600 there was a huge boom in Germany and their pottery production. They had come across salt firings, which was a big advancement. Salt fires at medium to high temperatures, and for a Medieval European Society, firing above earthenware temperatures had been a big struggle.

Here are some of my German steins all within the 1300-1600 period. Raeren is technically a small city in Belgium very close to the German border, but it is catagorized under "German" wares, per Museum of London.



Sprig attached jug, thumbed foot.




Raeren (Belgium)stoneware biconical drinking mug with thumbed foot, similar to this one off the Museum of London site.




German "becher" or beaker in English. ;)


German forms are very similar to English of the same time period. Germany exported much of their wares, so personally, I have a feeling the English probably copied the Germans, but I haven't really researched this. It is common practice among potters, metalworkers and even glassblowers to copy (or the polite term, "be inspired by) each other's vessels. There are numerous examples of similar beakers in glass and pottery, Aquamaniles in metal and ceramic, and vice versa. Anything to make a buck, right?

Modern Fun

I was playing with some period German shapes and some more modern undertones and got this.





Just having fun. :)