Toby jug 1775 - 1785

This is a salt-glazed stoneware Toby jug, probably made in Staffordshire, England, in the late 18th century by Ralph Wood the Younger. The figure references the popular ballad “The Brown Jug,” which tells of a jovial character named Toby Philpot who drinks himself to death. But, as it became a popular drinking vessel, the Toby jug also became associated with the rise of an English national identity connected with the consumption of beer and good cheer. The jug’s very form comments on social structures of its time. It can be seen as a celebration of the middling classes, who had the disposable income to buy such decorative objects. The jugs, produced by industrial means, became affordable for the rising middle class. The association with drinking and bawdy song also allowed it to signify freedom from the restraints of aristocratic taste and manners. Historians of art and culture use broadside ballads, manufacturers' trade cards, and other such ephemera to better understand the audience for and significance of objects like this.