Large Toby/Character Jugs Identification

Hello, I have just come into 4 Toby/Character Jugs and I have been unable to find out the stamps on the bottom to determine who what when they were made. I have Shakespeare, Pensioner London faces, Beefeater London faces and Town Crier London faces all engraved into the back. They are very interesting and quirky and any information would be fantastic. (would love to know if I got given a gold mine )

 

Hi Peter!

Welcome to Antiquers.......

I am not familiar with that mark, nor can I find one like it or read all of what it says.

Others will be along to help you, so keep checking back.

In the meantime, if you Edit your post, please choose Full Image on your photos rather than thumbnail.

 

Thanks Judy, I also added the other stamps as stamp 4 has better writing on it. I am stumped I have been searching through hundreds of google images, pottery stamps and reverse image for clues. hopefully, someone has some idea

 

The new photo of the mark is much more clear.

TY for enlarging the photos.

Someone will know "who".

 

New one on me. They look to be 70s or 80s repros, not high value. I'd trawl through Ebay UK, see if anyone has similar.

 

Welcome, @Peter Foale . Do you know who all of those people are? I recognize Shakespeare but don't know any of the others.

 

Hi,
Yours are character mugs or jugs. The REAL tobys are always full figure including feet.
greg

 

Oh, good point, Greg!

 

Yes, he says they have writing on the backs.

 

The one with RH is a Chelsea Pensioner. The bloke with the ruff is a Beefeater. I've never seen a town crier like that, but hey.

 

But from the tops (except for Shakespeare) they appear to either be pipe/cigar rests or ash trays.....with the indents on top..........???.....once again.... strange.....

 

Yes I tried searching character ashtray but not alot of luck on that. I will edit all my photos I took of different angle to fit the 1mb and post when I can. I appreciate the help so far

 

Thanks! I thought maybe they were identifiable individuals. I suppose if they don't ID them as such, then they are not.

 

How big are they, by the way?

 

10 -14 cm tall

 

I'd speculate that these were produced on the cheap by an anonymous manufacturer on contract for "Studio Original Ceramics Design" - possibly as a response to the inexpensive toby copies coming out of the Far East. I think owned has the date pretty much pinned down. 70's -80's or maybe just a little earlier. 10-14 cm is taller than I thought. I had figured they were individual ashtrays. Now I'm completely baffled as to their use. Pencil cups?
Don

 

Hello, you been given some correct and some incorrect information. I'm a 40 yr toby collector. I don't consider myself an expert because I'm always learning but I can give some knowledge here.

There are two types of jugs. Tobys Jugs and Character Jugs. Toby jugs are a jug of the whole body of a person and a character jug is a jug of only the head. So obviously you have 4 character jugs. Many people refer to all of them as toby jugs because they don't know the difference.

Now as for your character jugs, I've not seen the mark on your jugs but I'm familiar with the jugs themselves. I'm afraid you may have fake jugs. The real jugs of these characters look slightly different. To the lay person, they may not know the difference. But I certainly can tell. The differences are slightly off from the originals. And the mark is very peculiar. I see words that say "Original Ceramic", the real tobys or character jugs would not be made of ceramic. New ones could be made from that. So I'm hesitant to say that these are nothing more than fakes. The original ones in the 1700s, were made from clay and then porcelain in the 1800-2000s. And they are even some in the 1950s made of chalk. Those are small tobys. And there are glass ones made in the later 1900s.

I hope this helps and sorry it's not the happiest of news.

Dana

 

These have clear marks on the bottom. I wouldn't call them fakes.

 

Me either. Porcelain and other baked earths are, of course, ceramic.

The glass Tobys were made by Whitefriars, I have a few.

 

Fakes often have marks as to fool the interested buyer. As I said, I've been a collector of tobys for 40yrs. And am just as familiar with character jugs. I have a vast knowledge of marks used for them. This is not one that is known.