Hands up… who has tried a puzzle jug? 🏺

Simple at first glance… until you try to drink from it.

Descended from the fuddling cup, these clever vessels have been amusing (and confusing) people since the Medieval period.

Try one yourself:
potted-history.co.uk

#PuzzleJug #HistoryInHand

An ornate blue and white pottery jug with carved out thick neck, old English wording on the big round belly, and 3 spouts connected to the long handle attached at the very top and bottom of the jug.

Sooo intimidated by the #puzzlejug on #TGPT last night. So many technical skills that I could only hope to master in one lifetime IMHO! #pottery #pottersofbluesky

two jugs facing each other. literally, because they have faces, crude but charming faces made with some simple dots of clay and scratches The one to the left is brown and missing the neck and most of the handle. The one to the left is a light sand color and has an openwork neck and a little spout opposite the handle.

The same jugs but both are now facing the camera. They look kind of bored

A cross section of the jug, where you can see that there's a tunnel running through the handle, around the neck towards the spout. A tiny hole inside the handle opens up towards this tunnel.

A similar jug like the brown one, but this one is complete with openwork neck, spout and handle.

A 500 year old puzzle jug (1475-1550, broken) next to my unfinished reconstruction. The question is: how do you drink from this jug?
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#puzzlejug #bartmannjug #archeology #history #puntneuskruik #fopkan #baardmankruik