Toby jug
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A toby jug - also sometimes known as a Fillpot - is ceramic jug in the form of a seated person. Typically the figure is a heavily-set, jovial man holding a mug of beer in one hand and a pipe of tobacco in the other and wearing 18th century attire: a long coat and a tricorn hat. The tricorn hat forms a pouring spout, often with a removable lid, and a handle is attached at the rear.
The original toby jug, with a brown salt glaze, was developed and popularised by Staffordshire potters in the 1760s; Ralph Wood is a prime candidate. It is thought to be a development of similar Delft jugs that were produced in the Netherlands. Similar designs were produced by other potteries, first in Staffordshire, then around England, and eventually in other countries. Toby jugs are collectible.
[edit] Origin
The origin of the name "toby jug" is uncertain, and has been ascribed variously to:
- a song from 1761 entitled Dear Tom, This Brown Jug, about one Toby Philpot a soldier who liked to drink (his name being a pun on "fill pot");
- a reference to Sir Toby Belch, a character from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night;
- the word tope, meaning 'to drink a lot'.
Although unrelated to the modern-day jug, the Romans seem to have had a version of the Toby jug.
Toby Jug meaning mug, in cockney rhyming slang.
[edit] Toby in the stars
A reflection nebula, IC 2220, surrounding a red giant star, is known as the Toby Jug Nebula due to its peculiar "bi-polar, bi-conical" shape, which resembles a toby jug.
[edit] External links
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