American Toby Jug Museum 

Aramis toby jug with a musical movement produced by Sylvan Pottery of Hanley, England, circa 1950. Aramis, Athos and Porthos are the loyal trio and heroes of Alexandre Dumas' tale of chivalry, "The Three Musketeers". Dumas recounts the adventures of an impoverished young Gascon, D'Artagnan, who during the reign of Louis XIII, comes to Paris to join the King's musketeers. This united band displays their courage and daring as they share many an adventure in this romantic novel and its sequels "Twenty Years After" and "The Viscount of Bragelonne". The first novel owes much of its inspiration to the semi-fictional "Memoires de Monsieur D'Artagnan" by Courtilz de Sandras and has some factual basis. Musketeers were historically a mounted guard loyal to the King of France and Dumas places his swashbuckling heroes in the 17th century under the reign of Louis XIII. The true musketeer Aramis was named Henri D'Aramitz, son of a Protestant family. A temporary soldier in the novel, Aramis subsequently enters the Church yet remains faithful to his friends, upholding forever their famous maxim, "All for one, one for all". The feather plume from Aramis' hat forms the handle of the jug.