American Toby Jug Museum 

Cossack Soldier character jug produced by W. & A. Gilbey of Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1970. This is an advertising jug for Gilbey's Vodka. The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic-Caspian steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia. Historically they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people who were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. The Cossack way of life persisted into the twentieth century, though the sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society.