American Toby Jug Museum 

Gryphon character jug prototype produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, in 2000 for a proposed Alice in Wonderland Series. The gryphon is a fictional character devised by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland. True to the conventional view of a griffin, he has the head, talons, and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. The gryphon was ordered by the Queen to take Alice to meet the Mock Turtle, demanding that the Mock Turtle tell its history, as well as several poems. The two creatures go on to explain certain features of their world, which are apparently nonsense to Alice, before Alice and the gryphon are summoned to a criminal trial, leaving the Mock Turtle behind. The subjects revealed at court are strange undersea parodies of real school subjects, just as the dance they perform for her, the Lobster Quadrille, is a parody of a popular mid-Victorian dance. Because they are playful, lighthearted, and focused on their own childhoods, the gryphon and Mock Turtle seem like the most fitting companions for Alice of all the Wonderland creatures. The Mock Turtle and Lobster Quadrille form the handle of the jug.