The toby form, traditionally a seated figure holding a mug and a pipe and wearing a tricorn hat, was introduced into English pottery in the mid-eighteenth century.  Widely manufactured and popular into the nineteenth century, the toby jug was first produced at the Bennington factory in the late 1840s. The firm made several models of bust-length pitchers as well as this full-length seated figure, all with Rockingham-style glazes.  The form was also adapted to create small covered match safes (see B.57.16). While most examples bear the Lyman, Fenton mark, this one is unusual in bearing the mark more commonly seen on scroddled wares.

Related examples: PMA (Spargo 1969, pl. XI); a scroddled example (Barret 1958, p. 318, pl. 415); a Rockingham example (Barret 1958, p. 319, pl. 416e).

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.