Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Home Beautiful: The Granville Toby, 1985

Toby Jug
Rockingham Pottery, 1985
The Victoria & Albert Museum



This Toby Jug is a modern take on the Tobies which were popular in the Nineteenth Century. This character jug is one of a set of fourteen miniature Toby Jugs which were made to represent characters from the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. These are, essentially, based on an original series which was designed by the Burslem pottery firm of Shorter & Sons in 1940 when principals from the D'Oyly Carte Company were photographed in costume and in character. The Toby Jug pictured above depicts Sydney Granville (1880- 1959) as “Don Alhambra” in “The Gondoliers.” The original series featured large and small jugs as well as a line of wall plaques, cigarette boxes and ash trays. The Second World War halted production of the Burslem series which wasn’t actually released until 1949.

The series was resurrected by the Rockingham Pottery in 1985 who modeled their wares on the original moulds.


No comments: