Born in Georgia, entrepreneur and planter Jefferson Nash had connections to the founding families of the famous Edgefield, South Carolina, potteries through his second wife, Elizabeth Gibbs, and her brother James. Nash came to Marion County (then Cass County), Texas, in 1846 and established the first iron furnace in the state. He may have been producing pottery as early as 1848. The 1850 census noted two “turners” (potters) residing in his household, and enslaved laborers almost certainly worked in the pottery as well.

This large, two-handled form is often called a syrup jug, named for the molasses or sugar syrup that was a staple of the southern diet.