American Toby Jug Museum 

Liszt character jug produced by Lancaster and Sandland of Hanley, England, circa 1940. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded. Liszt gained renown during the 1830s for his skill as a pianist. Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the time, he toured Europe during the 1830s and 1840s. In these years, Liszt developed a reputation for his powerful performances. In a phenomenon dubbed "Lisztomania", he rose to a degree of stardom and popularity among the public not experienced by the virtuosos who preceded him. He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work that influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends. Among Liszt's musical contributions were the concept of the symphonic poem, innovations in thematic transformation and impressionism in music, and the invention of the masterclass as a method of teaching performance.