TOBY JUGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 21 June 1926, Page 8

TOBY JUGS

According to tradition, Toby-jugs are said to have originally been n?|de in the likeness-of . j Old Toby Philpot, as thirsty a soul As e’er drank a bottle or fathomed.a bowl. It is also possible that the idea- may have been an adaptation of the sixteenth and seventeenth- century wine flasks known as “Bellarmines,” or in Gorman “Bartman” (bearded man.) These showed tho mask of a bearded man under the rim of the neck (writes G. Baseden Butt, in the Daily Chronicle). In the hands of such great eighteenth century potters as Ralph Wood, Thomas Wliicldon, and John Astbury, the appearance of “Old Toby” soon underwent great variation. 110 is usually short, corpulent, with a jug of. ale on his knee, and almost always wears a three-cornered lint. Collectors to-day may look for the “Sailor,” seated on a dust of dollars; tlm “Postboy,” astride a barrel; the portly “Snufftaker,” ,or “The Old English Gentleman,” who, notwithstanding his genteel demeanour, ‘holds a glass in one hand and a jug in the other.

There are also Nelson, Napoleon, and Frederick tho Great Tobies —a custom, of portraiture which still persists, for in modern examples one finds such national heroes as Admiral Jellicoe and Lord Kitchener. Genuine antique Tobies may be distinguished by brown veining due to discoloration of the lead glaze. ' A more certain indication, is the presence of iridescent rainbow colours, but this is only found if the glaze is on a dark body. _ . In addition to jugs, there are Toby y mugs; and rather less known are fihe inkpots, salt-cellars, mustard-pots, and teapots, also modelled in the likeness-,of “Old Tobv.”