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Robertson County, Middle Tennessee 3-gallon stoneware advertising whiskey jug with an Albany slip glaze inscribed “Pitt Bros./ Distillers & Liquor Dealers / Springfield, T”. Additionally inscribed “3” denoting gallon capacity. 15 in. H. Late 19th century. Note: Early Robertson County settler Arthur Pitt established a small still on his property in the early 1790s. Over the next several decades, Pitts’ sons continued the operation and developed the distillery into a prosperous business. As the whiskey industry soared in the mid-19th century, competition increased. Charles Nelson’s distillery in Greenbrier became Pitts’ largest competitor, producing over eight thousand barrels of whiskey per year. Business began to decline in the 1880s as tobacco surpassed whiskey in production, and anti-whiskey pressure rose from temperance groups. Prohibition stopped the production of whiskey altogether in 1909 and the company never recovered. Several extant buildings of the Pitt Distillery are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (Source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia).
PROVENANCE:
By descent in a Robertson County, Tennessee family.
CONDITION:
An approx. 2″ glazed indentation to the base, appears to be in the making. Scattered firing imperfections and losses to the glaze around the rim edge.
