American Toby Jug Museum 

Scaramouche character jug modeled by Stanley J. Taylor and produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, between 1988-1991. The braggart and buffoon, Scaramouche, was a stock character in the comedia dell'arte and his English name is taken from the Italian Scaramuccia. Most often dressed in a black Spanish costume caricaturing the Spanish dons, Scaramouche is an able and agile entertainer, singing and playing his guitar. He is characteristically courageous with words but cowardly in deed. He is featured in a novel of the same name by Rafael Sabbatini (1921), a romantic story of a young aristocrat during the French Revolution. In the course of his adventures he at one point becomes an actor portraying Scaramouche. Throughout the novel he also becomes a lawyer, politician and lover, confounding his enemies with his elegant orations and precision swordsmanship. The novel was later dramatized and performed in London's West End during the 1920s and film versions depict Scaramouch more as a colorful, swashbuckling character. The masks of tragedy and comedy against a stage curtain form the handle of this jug.