American Toby Jug Museum 

John Bull toby jug wearing a black hat and produced by William Kent of Burslem, England, circa 1920. John Bull is the national symbol of England. He was popularized as a patriotic figure in 1712 by a Scottish writer who published pamphlets advocating the end of the war of the Spanish Succession. These were later republished as the History of John Bull portraying the man as an honest, jolly, plain dealing, hot-tempered farmer. By the 1800s however, Punch cartoonist Sir John Tenniel had transformed him into a dignified gentleman.