19th Century Stoneware Jug from Edgefield, South Carolina Discovered in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Two days ago, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with my niece Alexis, but on our way, we decided to stop at an antique shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the first floor of this shop, we found this one gallon nineteenth century stoneware jug from Edgefield, South Carolina. The jug is prominently marked with an inscribed cross or "X".

It would be great to learn the history of this jug, in order to try and understand why it appeared in such a location at an antique shop in Cambridge. Considering how we found this object, I doubt it was recently purchased at an auction, but rather likely from an older context of ownership, such as an estate sale.

The wares made in Edgefield are well-known today, largely due to the connection of enslaved African-American potters who produced many of these objects before the American Civil War. This is also a rare discovery for New England, but it's not the only known example of an Edgefield ware found in this region; for instance, Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins published an Edgefield face jug that she found in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the early-twentieth century in figure 109 in Early New England Potters and Their Wares, which is owned today by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Although, I have also heard other stories about related Edgefield wares found on Cape Cod and southern Maine in the twentieth century.

Edgefield, SC Stoneware Jug

My Niece Alexis with the 1 Gallon 19th Century Edgefield, SC Stoneware Jug

Discovered in an Antique Shop in Cambriedge, Mass.

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View of the Inscribed Cross or "X"

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