Wallace Kirkpatrick (1828-1896)
Snake Jug, 1877 
wheel-thrown and constructed stoneware, salt and brown slip glazes, 11 by 11 inches
Illinois State Museum collection
Illinois State Museum purchase (1991.11) 

Snake Jug QTVR (271 kb requires Quicktime plug-in)

Snake jugs are containers for liquids. The round body and long neck are similar to those found on jugs made in Germany and England between 1550 and 1764. In the United States, this style of jug became a symbol for Prohibition (the movement to ban the sale and drinking of alcoholic beverages). The wriggling snakes are meant as a warning to people about the dangers of alcoholic drinks. Anna Pottery was not the only maker of snake jugs, but it may have been one of the first. 

Wallace, who was the company's traveling salesman, took his snake jugs (along with some caged snakes) and other pottery incorporated sculpture to markets and fairs to display and to attract people to buy Anna Pottery products.

Wallace learned the pottery business from his father. Before he settled down to adult life, he went off to "see the world" by joining the Gold Rush in California for a year. When the brothers ran Anna Pottery together, Wallace served as the company's salesperson and the manager of its kaolin clay quarry. This part of the business dug out the white kaolin clay and sold it to pottery companies in other states. 

One of Wallace's pastimes was his collection of live snakes. He showed them at fairs and expositions to attract people to his pottery products on display. Wallace specialized in sculpted clay pieces like the snake jugs and stoneware advertising trinkets to give out at fairs. The trinkets included tiny hollow jugs and log cabins, mugs with frogs inside, and dog statuettes. He spent some years late in his life building and exhibiting stoneware models of pioneer farms complete with movable figures. 

Wallace's brother Cornwall was elected mayor of Anna, Illinois. One of his campaign pledges was support of prohibition.

Why do you suppose snakes were chosen to send the message of the dangers of alcohol?