These two Toby Jugs, which have just been given to the museum collections, are part of an unusual local artistic tradition. Toby Jugs were first made in the 1700s and they showed a jolly man with a mug in his hand and a three-cornered tricorn hat which made a pouring spout for the drink in the jug. Nobody knows who the original Toby was; he may have been named after Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’, or he may be named after Toby Phillpot from a song ‘Brown Jug’ popular in 1761.

Later on, the Doulton Pottery was well known for making Toby Jugs in a range of different characters, but many other potteries made them as well. The jug on the right was made at Clokie & Co in Castleford, but it wasn’t decorated at the factory.  After its first firing in a kiln at the factory to get it to a white ‘biscuit’ stage, it has been hand-painted by a local person at a painting class with their own choice of colours.  Then it was returned to the factory to be fired for a second time to complete it. We even know the name of the person who painted it, as they have marked their name underneath K. AKERS.

One of Castleford’s most famous people, the artist Henry Moore, did pottery-painting classes when he was at Castleford High School. His art teacher Alice Gostick first had the idea of using pottery from Clokie’s factory as the subject for artwork. Other people went on teaching art in this way until at least the 1930s, when H Worrill ran a pottery painting class at Glasshoughton.

The Toby Jug on the left looks just the same shape as the jug made at Clokie’s but is finished with different colours. What is unusual about this one is that it isn’t made of pottery at all. It is made of papier-mâché (wet paper mixed with glue which dries to a hard finish).  It could never have been used as a jug, as any liquid would have dissolved the papier-mâché. A local person has made this too, but it isn’t marked so we don’t know who it was.