Sleepy Eye Jug

Q: I bought this pitcher when on a road trip with a friend who had a thrift store. I saw an identical one on the Antiques Road Show on television years ago. I’d like to know about my pitcher and its value.

A: Your pitcher has a profile image of Chief Sleepy Eye, whose Indian name, Ish-Tak-Ha-Ba, means “sleepy eyes” or “drooping eyelids.” He was chief of the Sisseton Dakota tribe from about 1825 until his death in 1860. The Sleepy Eye Milling Co., a flour mill in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, used his profile in advertising from 1883 until 1921, when the mill went out of business. The mill offered several premiums over the years, including letter openers, calendars, rulers, match holders, pillow tops, caps, and stoneware and pottery items. Weir Pottery Co. of Monmouth, Illinois, made butter jars, salt bowls, steins, and vases in the early 1900s. Weir merged with six other potteries to become Western Stoneware Company in 1906. Western Stoneware Company made blue and white Sleepy Eye from 1906 until 1937, long after the flour mill went out of business. Pieces are decorated with the profile of an Indian, teepees, and trees. Blue and white pieces are the most common, but pitchers, steins, and vases were also made in white and brown, green, and other colors. The pitchers originally came in only five sizes: 4 inches, 5 1/4 inches, 6 1/2 inches, 8 inches, and 9 inches. Reproductions have been made of all of them. Reproduction pitchers weigh less than old ones. If your pitcher has a sunken hole on the inside where the handle is attached, it’s a reproduction.

There is a club for collectors of Old Sleepy Eye and other blue and white pottery, Blue & White Pottery/ Old Sleepy Eye Collectors Club. The club has a website with more information and an annual convention. Old Sleepy Eye pitchers have sold recently for $50 to $188.