American Toby Jug Museum 

Old Father Time toby jug designed by David B. Biggs and produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, in a 1996 limited edition of 2,500 for Lawleys by Post. Old Father Time is a reminder that time is the devourer of all things and that, like the substance in the hourglass he often carries, his vitality will run out until it is totally exhausted. The personification of Old Father Time has its roots in the Greek Roman Deity of time, Saturn, referred to by the Greeks as Cronus or Kronos. The English word "Chronos" means "time" and is the root of "chronology" and other modern words, such as "chronometer", which is any instrument that measures time. Saturn also was an ancient Italian Corn God known as the Sower, and in art Saturn has always been depicted as an old man holding a scythe or sickle. The image of Saturn carried on in the modern Old Father Time. By the Middle Ages there were many engravings of the Grim Reaper, which depict a skeletal figure holding a scythe and hourglass. This unique toby jug depicts a kindlier character holding his scythe and is complete with a working chronometer (clock) instead of an hourglass, which in turn forms the handle of the jug.