Royal Doulton Dickens at The American Toby Jug Museum: Imitations of the Inimitable
Contributed by Lydia Craig, Loyola University Chicago
Ever since the invention of Toby Jugs in the 1760s in Northern England, these collectibles have been bought and sold by people fascinated by the range of their creative potential. Technically, “A Toby Jug is a figural ceramic pitcher modeled in the form of a popular character, historical, fictional or generic. It can be a person or animal” (“Toby Jugs”). Originally, the first Toby Jugs depicted a sitting figure, the legendary eighteenth-century English squire Henry Elwes, called “Toby Philpott” (i.e. “Fill-pot”), who drank himself to death. Clutching a mug of beer in one hand with a jovial countenance, Toby invites the viewer to share an evening’s merriment at the local tavern! Over the twentieth century, Toby Jugs increased in popularity and were sold by several companies, many of which are still in operation. Now a collector’s item, an individual Toby Jug can fetch anywhere from fifteen dollars to tens of thousands, depending on the year, availability, maker, design, and subject matter.
For nearly one hundred years, the works of Charles Dickens have furnished Toby Jug makers with ideas for endless versions of his extraordinary characters. At the American Toby Jug Museum (910 Chicago Ave.) in Evanston, Illinois (founded circ. 2005), I recently got the chance to view an extensive collection of Dickensian Toby Jugs and other ceramics figurines that may not necessarily be crafted into a mug shape. After reading about my experience and viewing the photos in this blog post, go to the Dickens Society’s YouTube channel to watch a short film of more Dickens pieces I did not have space to include here!
Housing over 8,000 pieces, this museum was founded by the late Toby Jug and general ceramics collector and expert Stephen M. Mullins (“Steve”),who first fell in love with Toby Jugs after buying one for his mother while at a summer camp in Canada as a teenager. This passion only intensified after Mullins, an American G.I. stationed in Germany during the Korean War, bought a “steam trunk full” of Royal Doulton Toby Jugs from the PX, the military term for the base exchange store, and lugged them home. Mullins wrote and co-authored several books, a list of which can be found below, on the subject of ceramic pitchers and figurines from various makers.
When speaking of his long-time business partner, current museum curator and director Kevin Pearson constantly marvels at Mullins’s genius and energetic drive, which often motivated him to do extraordinary things like drive hundreds of miles to buy and restore a broken, 2×2, Toby Jug figurine. Pearson reflects, “When Steve did anything, he did it with the thoroughness, energy, and diligence that you just don’t come across, and that’s why he was so successful.” The sheer extent of the collection, including literary and film characters (Long John Silver, Tam O’Shanter, Sherlock Holmes, the cast of Star Wars), actors (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, etc.), and famous politicians and royalty (Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, American presidents, Princess Diana), along with animals, clowns, chess pieces, and thousands of other themed figurines, attests to Steve’s passion, expertise in the subject, and desire to share the many joys of Toby Jugs.
Though sites such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and others frequently offer Toby Jugs for sale, as do those of official makers such as Royal Doulton, it is worthwhile to learn the history and value of each piece in order to be an informed collector. While having authored several books himself on the subject of recognizing and authenticating antique and limited editions of ceramics pieces (list below), Pearson first encountered Toby Jugs as a young antiques dealer at a fair in Leeds, England, where he rashly, but enthusiastically, sold 150 for the absurdly low sum of £8 each before learning their true value. The publication of his first guide to collecting and selling Toby Jugs led to a close friendship with Mullins and another expert and author,Vic Schuler. Schuler is famed for being endearingly rendered as a Toby Jug himself, gripping a miniature Toby Jug in one hand and his book Collecting British Toby Jugs (1986) in the other.
Entering the museum and meeting the extremely gracious and informative Kevin Pearson in person, I am confronted by a veritable labyrinth of wall-length glass cases. Glancing around, I instantly spy a hundred Dickens characters peeping out at me from high and low, smiles and grimaces etched on their gleaming faces. Pearson stops frequently to point out Dickens-themed Toby Jugs and figurines, while I continue to find others by myself. Makers are various, including Royal Doulton, Royal Stuart, Beswick, Avon Ware, Davonport, Burgess & Leigh, and Kevin Francis, Kevin Pearson’s own former company with partner and friend Francis Salmon.
Pearson shows me three ceramic Dickensian figurines he personally designed, removing their heads to reveal a customized message on the inside bottom of each. For Joe, the Fat Boy, more renowned for eating than speaking in Pickwick Papers (1837), the message reads with deliberate irony, “Only a single line for Joe!” while the one for Charles Dickens himself fittingly declares, “I will live in the past, the present, and the future!”
Popular figures from the 1930s onwards seem to include Sam Weller, Samuel Pickwick and other members of the Pickwick Club, as well as Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol, 1843), though I am surprised by the clear maker preference for some characters now considered more obscure. Rows upon rows of Sairey Gamps (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844) and Tony Wellers (PickwickPapers, 1837) appear, their good-natured Cockney grins broad and cheerful,while the irrepressible Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield, 1850) advertises American Whiskey Jim Beam in a sly drinking joke. Certainly, there seems to be a strong likelihood that something will indeed “turn up”!
Eventually, I consciously begin searching for my favorite characters up and down the row, darting away from Pearson with eager rudeness to photograph an especially adorable or grotesque figurine. Perched next to an accountably terrified-looking Charles Dickens, one rendition purporting to be Nicholas Nickleby (Nicholas Nickleby 1839) gives me the creeps. No, he isn’t supposed to be Smike or Sir Mulberry Hawk – I double-checked!
Of course, the ones I’m longing to capture are the bad guys,the out-and-out villains, a type which seems especially rare among the generally fabulous, but wholesome multiples, but are doubly hilarious once discovered. Finally, to my delight I locate a repulsively shiny, offensively pastel Uriah Heep (David Copperfield,1850) in all his officious humility, but am unable to see more than a small figurine of Alfred Jingle (Pickwick Pipers, 1837), though I know Royal Doulton versions of him have been created. He’s probably lurking on one of the other shelves I have not seen yet…possibly behind a cricket champion or a captain?
Among the teapots and cups, wall-plates, bookends, ashtrays and even lamps, my favorites are the tiny figurines, some of which are thimbles. Constituting line-ups of Dickens characters from various novels, these ceramic pieces are individually designed and painted in order to do full justice to the famous classics of English literature.
According to the fleeting glimpse I caught of the world of Dickens Toby Jugs, characters from later novels, such as Dombey and Son (1848), Bleak House (1853), Great Expectations (1861), Our Mutual Friend (1865), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) are harder to locate, though I did manage to find a miniature Miss Havisham. Perhaps, as these novels attract increased attention, makers of Toby Jugs will enlarge the Dickens collection, as Pearson indicates that several designers continue to manufacture new pieces. Suggestions from me include James Carker, baring impossibly magnificent teeth stretched wide in a leer, Harold Skimpole gaily extending a butterfly net, Silas Wegg and his wooden leg, balanced on a crutch while clutching his ballads in the other hand, Mr Venus with a tea cup, skeleton, and alligator, and schoolmaster Bradley Headstone, manically gripping an actual headstone in the throes of the most painful marriage proposal in literature. For the time being, examining a brand-new, extremely beautiful prototype of Scrooge and his three spirits in my first of what will be many visits to The American Toby Jug Museum has given me hope that the genre will continue to grow and attract admirers in the twenty-first century.
Though I haven’t bought this one…yet…I did purchase a wonderful depiction of Scrooge cowering away in his armchair, terrified of Marley’s Ghost, one assumes.
If you are resident in, or visiting, the Chicago area, come visit The American Toby Jug Museum from 12-5 pm Friday-Sunday or by appointment – admission is free, though donations are gratefully received! You can wander the rows of cabinets as I did and purchase your own Toby Jug figurine offered for sale on your way out. Otherwise, to find out more about Toby Jugs, especially the colorful Dickensian figurines among them that have appeared over the last century and still continue to be produced today, consult the following bibliography and article list on Toby Jugs and The American Toby Jug Museum.
Toby Jug Bibliography
The Character Jug Collectors Handbook. Edited bySalmon Francis, Kevin Pearson, and Peter Miller. Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 1995.
Dale, Jean. Royal Doulton Jugs. The Charlton Press, 2008.
Eyles, Desmond. Royal Doulton Character & Toby Jugs.Royal Doulton Tableware Limited, 1979.
Fastenau, David C. and Stephen M. Mullins. Toby &Character Jugs of the 20th Century and their Makers. Companion PriceGuide. Kevin James Publishing, 2000.
— with Bertrand Cocq. A World of Majolica CharacterPitchers. The American Toby Jug Museum, 2016.
— with Louise Irvine. A Century of Royal Doulton Character& Toby Jugs. Schiffer Pub Ltd., 2008.
Pearson, Kevin. The Doulton Figure Collector’s Handbook. Francis, 1988.
Schuler, Vic. British Toby Jugs. Wallace-Homestead Book Company, 1987.
Articles on Toby Jugs and The American Toby Jug Museum:
“Toby Jugs.” The American Toby Jug Museum. Website. 2019.
Link: https://www.tobyjugmuseum.com/.
—. Facebook. 2019. Link: https://www.facebook.com/Tobyjugmuseum/
Hart, Hugh. “Classic Toby Jugs Find a Home in ‘Dry’ Evanston.”Chicago Tribune. 2 January 1997.
Link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-01-12-9701120066-story.html
“The Jug Whisperer.” Chicago Tribune. 16 September 2014.
Link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-jugs-pg-photogallery.html
“If you want to see a famous mug, visit the American Toby Jug Museum in Evanston.”
O’Donnell, Maureen. “Stephen Mullins founded Evanston museum celebrating quirky collectibles, dead at 86.” Chicago Sun Times. 28 June 2019.
Link: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/6/28/18761610/toby-jug-museum-stephen-mullins-evanston-obituary
Sierzputowski, Kate. “His collection of 8,000 Toby Jugsbecame a museum.” The Washington Post. 12 October 2018.
Thanks for the excellent story of the American Toby Jug Museum. We hope that many of your Society members will be able to visit the Museum in person.
David Fastenau
Director, American Toby Jug Musuem
I met Steve Mullins a number of years ago when his jug museum was housed in an office building in downtown Chicago. Steve was a fine, gracious man who gave me a special tour. I love collecting tobies and have a modest collection of 50 or so. Always on the lookout for the next one.