Cat Jug

Though rare, English delftware figurines are present in colonial Virginia archaeological contexts. Jamestown Rediscovery’s archaeological collection includes two 17th century delftware figures. One is a jug in the form of a cat! Fewer than a dozen intact delftware cat jugs are known to exist in the world and dated examples were made between 1657 and 1676. These hollow tin-glazed jugs were press-molded, and decorated on the exterior with colorful hand-painted motifs. The cat’s fur is represented by short parallel lines, making small archaeological sherds identifiable. Though the jug discovered at Jamestown is fragmentary, the depiction of the cat’s nose and eyes made the form recognizable.

The face, hand-painted in cobalt blue, manganese purple, and antimony yellow, is one of three sherds of the jug in Jamestown’s collection. Two other cat jugs have been recovered archaeologically in 17th century Virginia contexts — one at the William Drummond site on the Governor’s Land in James City County and the other at the Chiskiack Watch site in Yorktown in York County. Both examples are also extremely fragmentary, with each vessel being represented only by a few sherds.