Guadalupe Pottery Company
Five-Gallon Syrup Jug

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Five-Gallon Syrup Jug
Datec. 1857–1869
Made inSeguin, Texas, United States
MediumAlkaline-glazed stoneware with kiln drops
Dimensions20 1/2 × 11 in. diameter (52.1 × 27.9cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc.
Object numberB.2001.7
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Kilroy Center
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

North Carolina native John M. Wilson trained to be a lawyer and later became a Presbyterian minister and entrepreneur. In 1850 he moved his family and those whom he enslaved to Missouri. In the wake of the violence that arose in the region in the dispute over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state, Wilson moved in 1856 and settled in Seguin, Texas. By 1857, he established the Guadalupe Pottery, which was active until 1869. Most of the work was carried out by enslaved workers, some of whom later established the firm of H. Wilson and Company. They may have learned the trade while in North Carolina or from others trained in southern pottery traditions associated with the Edgefield District of South Carolina, which included the use of a partially subterranean groundhog kiln and alkaline or ash glazes.

This large, two-handled form was called a syrup jug, intended for the molasses or cane syrup that was a staple of the southern diet. This example has large spots called kiln drops on its shoulder, the result of glaze dripping onto the jug from elsewhere in the kiln.


Provenance[Russell Barnes, Austin]; purchased by MFAH, 2001.
Exhibition History"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 7, 2012–January 2, 2013.

"Made in Texas: Art, Life and Culture: 1845–1900," Beeville Art Museum, Texas, September 20, 2014–January 10, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Sticker on the underside: "25¢"
Impressed on the shoulder: "5"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Five-Gallon Jar
Guadalupe Pottery Company
c. 1857–1869
Alkaline-glazed stoneware with kiln drops
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Guadalupe Pottery Company
c. 1857–1869
Alkaline-glazed stoneware
B.2012.143
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c. 1857–1869
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B.2012.139