American Toby Jug Museum 

Cabinet Maker character jug modeled by Michael Abberley and produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, in a 1995 limited edition of 1,500 for the Royal Doulton International Collectors Club. The Cabinet Maker depicts a craftsman of early American furniture for the colonists of the Williamsburg area. Cabinet makers in colonial Virginia produced fine furniture, but neither England nor the colonies could support full-time furniture producers until the last half of the seventeenth century. Only then did an adequate number of people have the leisure to enjoy the material trappings that reflected their new status. Virginians preferred plain but neat furniture, modestly elegant and neatly constructed. Ornamentation on furniture was used to emphasize the status of a person. By 1775 seven masters operated individual furniture shops in Williamsburg. A brace forms the handle of the jug.