With the increasing use of the pitcher and basin for personal hygiene within the American home in the early nineteenth century (see B.57.32, B.57.31, and B.2013.22), the need lessened for the large barber's basin, designed to hold water and to catch the soap and whiskers removed when shaving. About 1830 the shaving mug—a new, smaller, more easily handled form—was introduced. The straight-sided beverage mug was adapted, and a compartment was added to hold the shaving soap, occasionally on the outside or more commonly inside the lip (as seen on the present example). The Bennett design, with the relief ornament on each side, evokes the Toby form.

Related examples: Barret 1958, p. 97, pl. 134; Goldberg 1994, pp. 37, 60, figs. 8, 21, the latter illustrates a New Jersey example also modeled by Coxon.

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.