Among the novelty wares introduced by the English modeler Daniel Greatbach and produced at the Fenton factory were utilitarian objects that assumed the shape of a human figure. Most common is the Toby, which had a long English history and was made at Bennington in the pitcher and match safe forms (B.57.49, B.57.30, B.57.17 and B.57.16). Another, made in three sizes and with differing glazes, is a bar bottle depicting a man in a long coachman's cloak and top hat.  This form also continues an English tradition of human-shaped bottles produced to hold gin and distributed by local bars to their clients.  The cloak provides a useful adaptation of the human body to the requisite bottle shape, and the top hat accommodates the cork. The Bayou Bend bottle, which is the largest of the three sizes, is a variant where the cloak has tassels and the man holds a small bottle.

Related examples: Levin 1988 p. 30; for examples of the various glazes (Barret 1958, color plate G); for the three sizes and other variants (Barret 1958, pp. 321–23, pls. 419, 420, 421, 423); MMA (acc. no. 14.11.19–21).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.