German, Frechen
Greybeard Jug (Bartmannkrüge), early 17th century
Salt-glazed stoneware, 43.2 cm (17 in.)
Commentary
Nicknamed "Greybeard Jugs" for their caricature-like masks, these seventeenth-century stoneware bottles produced in northern Europe were popular containers for liquids thanks to their impervious salt glaze. Brought across the Atlantic during the Revolutionary War, this pot was discovered by a Boston construction firm in the 1870s while digging foundations on the former site of the Brattle Square Church (today City Hall), a building occupied by British troops in 1775. Here in the Dutch Room, elevated on a cabinet into the array of distinguished portraits, the hairy, wild man pokes fun at the serious aristocrats he accompanies.
