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The first Toby Jug was made in the early 18th century.
It was a jolly, seated, male figure, with a mug in his hand and a three cornered hat which made a pouring spout.
He was dressed in clothes of the time; a long coat with low pockets, waistcoat, a cloth worn around the neck that was trimmed with lace, knee breeches and buckled shoes.
No one really knows why he was named Toby although it is possible he was named after Sir Toby Belch a character in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Also it could be after a song popular in 1761 by the name of Brown Jug, which was around the time the jug was first produced in a traditional, brown salt glaze version.

Doulton made Toby jugs in the traditional manner since 1815 but in the 1920's Harry Simeon added color.
This inspired Charles Noke, a Doulton artist to rethink the Toby jug tradition.
He pictured a more colorful and stylish jug based on the head and shoulders of a character rather than the full figure.
He had in mind characters from English song, literature, history and legend, made to appeal to future generations.
It took him almost ten years to be satisfied with the standards of design and production, but in 1934 the first character jug was launched.
He chose as his subject John Barleycorn, a figure symbolizing whisky.

John Barleycorn became such an instant success that Old Charley, the Night Watchman, Sairey Gamp, Parson Brown and Dick Turpin was added to the jug making.
Two years later the first character jug modeled on a real person was made with Herry Fenton's John Peel, a trend which has continued to the present day.

A common feature of character jugs is their handles which often showed a fancy change of applied decoration which has developed over the years.
The first jugs generally had plain handles, with one or two exceptions, as some of the clown jugs had multi-colored handles.
Dick Turpin had a gun for a handle and the Jailer had a bunch of keys.
It was during the 1950s that the handles achieved greater creative importance when Max Henk was involved in their production.
His Long John Silver had a parrot handle and for the sake of being genuine does not have an eye patch, sticking to Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island.

The handles developed to tell more about the character and their associations, so the Dutchess from Alice in Wonderland has a flamingo handle, the emperor of Japan had a fan.
Recently, the London Bobby has both a whistle and Big Ben.
The character jug from 1996 shows how far this trend has developed in the model of Jesse Owen who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.
This handle contains the Olympic torch, a contemporary US flag of the time and a banner inscribed with the name of the Olympic town Berlin.

Sometimes variations have been made to handle design without altering the overall style of the jug.
The Beefeater Guard who guards the Tower of London was introduced in 1947 and carried the initials GR on his handle for George Rex.
In 1953 when Elizabeth II came to the throne, these were changed to ER, Elizabeth Regina.
There was also a version with a gold handle which is now more valuable.
In 1991 a completely new updated design shows the trend for more elaborate handles with its raven, the birds which legend says signified the fall of London should they ever leave the Tower.

Other handle differences which help to date the character jugs are the early versions of John Barleycorn.
The first plain handle disappeared inside the jug at their top end.
Later handles were attached to the outside.
Early versions of Stairey Gamp have an S at the bottom end of the handle.
There have also been limited editions of handle design.
Founding members of the Doulton Collectors Club were offered versions of John Doulton with the clock on the handle pointing to eight o'clock.
Members who joined at a later date find the clock points to two o'clock.

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Have you ever come up with a good idea while working with your handmade pottery or ceramics and thought that you would like to share it with others? You have? Well, why not send it to us and we will add it to the tips page for all to see.

Handmade pottery can be a very gratifying hobby that produces fun and satisfying results. For many people it's an enjoyable release that is created by working an inanimate mound of clay into a beautiful work of art that you made through your artistic abilities.

The best way of starting out is to take a few lessons. You will probably waste quite a bit in materials when you first get started. Figuring out how to truly make handmade pottery correctly and shape into what you want it to be can be quite an ordeal. The different tools that a normal shop will have can be fun to try. You will soon see which ones you like to use the most and then when you are ready you will know which ones to buy.

When you get all set up, just enjoy the hobby and have fun at it. Some people get pretty serious and start selling their creations at craft fairs and small stores, but others just like to create items for themselves, relatives, and friends. Whichever kind of handmade pottery you desire to endeavor, enjoy the hobby and have fun doing it.