By Louise Irvine

Charles Noke, Royal Doulton’s art director, began experimenting with face jugs in the 1930s, inspired by the work of the Lambeth studio artists and the Martin Brothers. In 1933, he modeled John Barleycorn, the personification of malt liquor. In the traditional folk song, Barleycorn’s flattened head was ground between two millstones to produce home-brewed ale. Noke collaborated with Harry Fenton on developing Doulton’s first character jugs. Fenton had trained as Noke’s assistant in the early 1900s but left to work in the New Jersey potteries for 17 years, returning to Stoke in 1928. Many of their first character jugs were associated with drinking, including Shakespeare’s Falstaff, who argued that alcohol produced wit and courage. Sairey Gamp, Dickens’ gin-drinking midwife, was the first female character and remained in production for 50 years. Salt of the earth characters, such as Paddy and Auld Mac, look as if they have imbibed too much Irish and Scotch whisky!

The first character jug models were approximately 6 inches tall, but smaller sizes, 2 and 3 inches tall, soon followed. In 1940 a tiny size just over 1 inch tall was issued in a set of 12 characters. Although the early character jugs had a pouring lip, few people used them for serving drinks. Noke believed his designs would be more popular if they had a useful purpose. Novelty coupled with practicality became his theme for the 1930s, and several character jug subjects were adapted for use as tobacco jars, lighters, teapots and even music boxes. The musical jug of Tony Weller, the publican from Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, plays Come Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl, a traditional drinking song dating back to the 17th century. Old King Cole, the merry old soul,also calls for his bowl of liquor in the popular nursery rhyme.

Portraying famous personalities as character jugs has always been fraught with copyright difficulties, and Royal Doulton modeled several celebrities during the 1980s, which were not introduced for licensing reasons. An extensive collection of unique prototype jugs can be seen in the Cheers exhibition thanks to Arthur Wiener’s collecting interests. His first acquisition in the mid-1960s was a character jug of Merlin. The magician certainly cast a spell on Arthur as he became the biggest Royal Doulton collector in the world.

Over the years, the Doulton character jug collection has included a host of personalities from literature, legend, folklore and song. Max Henk took responsibility for modeling the jugs in 1953 after Harry Fenton died. He fully exploited the handle’s potential for elaborating on the story of the character portrayed. His Tam O’ Shanter jug, inspired by the drunken farmer in the poem by Robert Burns, features a witch in hot pursuit clutching his horse’s tail. Henk also developed the first themed collections such as Alice in Wonderland.

American collectors have always been particularly fascinated by Royal Doulton character jugs, enjoying themed series such as Christmas and US Presidents. The last ever character jug produced by Royal Doulton was a portrait of Barack Obama as the 2011 Jug of the Year.

Read more about drinking jugs at WMODA

Creepy Mugs | Wiener Museum

Good Sir Toby | Wiener Museum

Cheers! | Wiener Museum