52 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Toby Mugs and Other Jugs 
(Continued from page 17) 
minded her that he had presented to 
the child a silver mug on the occa¬ 
sion of its christening. 
All this is merely retold as a jus¬ 
tification for the apparently flippant 
use of the word mug in the title of 
an article. But you may take the 
word to mean either the vessel itself 
or the face upon it—according as you 
are of a sensitive nature or other¬ 
wise. As a matter of fact, the use 
of the word mug as a colloquial term 
for face, no doubt became popular 
with the advent of the toby jug with 
its jovial and, perhaps more often, 
comic physiognomy.. 
The Original Tank 
The name “Toby,” as applied to a 
jug or pitcher, in statuette form, is 
generally conceded to be derived 
from a noted eighteenth century 
toper, Sir Toby Philpot. This gen¬ 
tleman gained renown by drinking 
two thousand gallons of ale out of 
his silver tankard, and indeed such 
a record would seem to entitle him to 
become the godfather of all future 
ale-pots. Whether to Sir Toby such 
credit is due—or even if Sir Toby 
Philpot is but a myth, as his name 
might imply—it was, nevertheless, in 
the eighteenth century that these lit¬ 
tle squat jugs first were made in 
England, and immediately became 
popular. They were probably orig¬ 
inally baked by the Staffordshire pot¬ 
ters, and at first the toby was merely 
a gaily colored jug in the form of 
a man seated, holding a pipe or an 
ale-mug in his hand. He invariably 
wore a cocked hat, because the tri¬ 
corn furnished an ideal shape for 
the pitcher’s lip. 
After the little old man, or toby, 
form of ale-jug had proven its popu¬ 
larity, a demand for variety came, 
and it occurred to the potters to use 
tobies for cartoon purposes. Thus 
the face of George II was put on a 
toby by a Nottingham potter, and 
later a toby representing George IV 
was produced in Staffordshire. 
From that time on, almost all 
notable characters of history have 
had themselves modeled into beer 
mugs. Napoleon Bonaparte in par¬ 
ticular is, no doubt, the most tobied 
of all celebrities. Nelson, probably, 
comes next, with the Duke of Well¬ 
ington a close second. There are 
many tobies of George Washington. 
One very good one was made in 
Trenton about fifteen years ago, and 
about six years ago an excellent one 
representing Theodore Roosevelt was 
produced at the same pottery. 
Among other tobies of American 
make we might mention one of Mc¬ 
Kinley, which was made in Ohio, at 
the time of his first campaign, but it 
bore only an indifferent likeness. 
But even earlier than these were 
the American-made tobies of Ver¬ 
mont. At Bennington, prior to the 
Civil War, several models were pro¬ 
duced. They are all of a peculiar 
mottled-brown ware, and therefore 
lack the attrac¬ 
tiveness which 
the bright colors 
add to the Staf¬ 
fordshire jugs. 
There is a George 
Washington, a n 
Ethan Allen, and 
a Benjamin 
Franklin, of Ben¬ 
nington m a n u - 
facture, and col¬ 
lectors wandering about New Eng¬ 
land will not go far wrong if they 
pick up one or more of these as op¬ 
portunity affords. 
Collecting Tobies 
From the collector’s viewpoint, 
there are two kinds of toby—the por¬ 
trait toby and the comic. The por¬ 
traits are usually of historic charac¬ 
ters such as kings, generals, admirals, 
and statesmen. The comics repre¬ 
sent Punch, John Bull, Falstaff, and 
certain standard figures that have 
been named “The Jolly Good Fel¬ 
low,” the “Post-boy,” the “Snuff- 
taker,” etc. 
Portraiture on jugs, however, has 
appealed to many besides the Staf¬ 
fordshire potters. In Holland, at the 
time Cardinal Bellarmine was perse¬ 
cuting the Flemish, pitchers were 
made bearing the prelate’s bearded 
countenance. They were called Bel- 
larmines and showed a rude face at 
the top of the jug, with a huge square 
beard. 
Even in the days of the Incas, in 
Peru, the idea of jug portraiture was 
in more or less general use. These 
jugs were called huacas, and were 
placed in the tombs, with wine and 
other food. Many of these jugs were 
undoubtedly intended to be portraits 
of the dead. A large collection of 
them may be seen at the Natural His¬ 
tory Museum, in New York, and no 
one will doubt that most were intend¬ 
ed as likenesses. 
Some of them 
show strong 
character fea¬ 
tures, and the 
modeling of 
most of them is 
excellent. 
Of late there 
has been a grow- 
in g interest i n 
these toby jugs; 
so much so that Sir F. Carruthers 
Gould has recently modeled five* 
tobies of the great figures of the war 
—Earl Kitchener, Sir John French, 
General Joffre, Sir John Jellicoe, and 
David Lloyd-George. There were 
only two hundred and fifty made of 
each, and the moulds were then de¬ 
stroyed. 
It is probable, therefore, that the 
price of these historic pitchers will 
rapidly advance. Some of the early 
Staffordshire jugs now bring pretty 
good prices at auction and in the 
shops. A genuine toby of the late 
eighteenth century may cost any¬ 
where from $50 to $75. But many 
imitations of the real article have 
been made and boiled in chemicals to 
give the effect of age, and are offered 
to the inexpert collector for four or 
five dollars. It is therefore safer, as 
a rule, to buy your jugs only from 
the most reputable of dealers, or to 
get some friend, who may be an ex¬ 
pert in such matters, to take a look at 
your desired toby, before you actually 
make the purchase. 
Staffordshire has been imitating it¬ 
self, to no little extent, during the 
past ten years—up to war time. Some 
of the potteries are known to have 
dragged the old moulds out of seclu¬ 
sion and to have made new tobies 
from the ancient models. But. as a 
rule, the modern piece, even if cast 
in the old mould, is quite easily de¬ 
tected by the trained eye, chiefly be¬ 
cause the coloring is neither so care¬ 
fully nor so skilfully done. And the 
texture of the clay will invariably 
betray the piece of modern make. 
Where a piece chips off a modern 
jug, the clay will show white; where¬ 
as a chip from an old piece will leave 
a scar of a darker, greyer tone. 
In this accidental manner the col¬ 
lector will be able to verify the au¬ 
thenticity of the pieces in his col¬ 
lection. 
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... A luminumWare 
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tings 
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niture 
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Lace 
Sunfast 
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Plates 
Stops 
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Nanfe<. 
Holders 
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tures 
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Grass 
Woven 
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Card 
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Tea 
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