Jug

From Polskie garncarstwo ludowe, ed. by Aleksander Błachowski we can find out that “a jug is a vessel with spout diameter usually smaller than the diameter of the body, with a handle, used for liquids.” In Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych PWN (Terminological Dictionary of Fine Arts) one can read that it is “a vessel with a neck, handle and usually a widened spout”. Quite recently, the Polish word for a jug, dzban, has also acquired a new figurative meaning and is used in colloquial speech to describe a person who is not very clever. Jugs were already used in the distant past. Kazimierz Moszyński stated in his Kultura ludowa Słowian (Slavs folk culture) that jugs “were widespread, but not everywhere they took the same form”. In some parts of northern and eastern Europe, jug-like vessels made of staves, with funnel-shaped lips made of knots were used. The collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin contains nearly one hundred jugs and pitchers. The piece on display is one of the older ones in the collection and dates back to the mid-19th century. It is decorated with all-around floral ornamentation made by impressing patterns in clay using stamps. It was used to store liquids.

Agnieszka Słowińska