The short answer is "no". The longer answer is "maybe, to some extent." 
Both water and gin jugs are of stoneware, made by the same potters in the 
Westerwald. There are clues that can help distinguish them: the water jugs 
are salt-glazed. The gin (or "Genever") jugs may be salt glazed or may have 
a separate colored glaze on the exterior surface or on both surfaces. The 
gin jugs generally show a bit more attention to detail - fewer 
fingerprints; tool marks fairly well smoothed out. The most dateable 
attribute is the interior tool marks: a sewer pipe extruding machine was 
adapted to the making of jugs in 1879. Jugs with fine, near vertical tool 
marks are 1879 or later. Jugs with coarse, near horizontal tool marks are 
hand-thrown, most before 1879. There is the inevitable overlap period, but 
the machine-mad jugs fairly quickly came to dominate the market. There are 
less reliable dating attributes also. Over time the jugs became more 
cylindrical: early jugs in the 18th century they had a distinctly 
egg-shaped body. By about 1850 they more closely resembled a huge pistol 
bullet. This shape change, unfortunately, was gradual, not even a series of 
steps. About 1870, the Westerwald potters added three rings around the 
necks of water jugs. These may, or may not, also appear on the gin jugs. 
There are also a few Russian jugs floating around - made by Westerwald 
immigrant potters, from clays imported from the Westerwald, in salt-glaze 
kilns just like those of the Westerwald. I don't have an end-date for 
stoneware, but probably by the end of WWI everyone had converted to glass - 
except for some extruded knock-offs from the 1960s You can always play the 
odds: jugs for the water trade were made by the millions; those for the gin 
trade, by the tens of thousands. If all the marks indicate quick and dirty 
mass production, you greatly increase the odds of having a water jug.

Robert C. Leavitt

(KNEW that thesis would come in handy sometime!!)

At 5/3/2006 12:00 AM, you wrote:

>Date:    Tue, 2 May 2006 08:38:02 -0400
>From:    JAMES MURPHY <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: "Dutch gin" bottles
>
>Without markings, can the brown pottery Dutch gin bottles be distinguished 
>from the German "Nassau" seltser bottles?
>
>How early might these show up in U.S. contexts?  I've read that those with 
>a ring handle are earlier than those without the handle.
>
>James L. Murphy