American Toby Jug Museum 

Spaniel character jug with a black coat produced by Lancaster and Sandland of Hanley, England, circa 1940. A spaniel is a type of gun dog. Spaniels were especially bred to flush game out of denser brush. By the late 17th century, spaniels had been specialized into water and land breeds. The extinct English Water Spaniel was used to retrieve water fowl shot down with arrows. Land spaniels were setting spaniels-those that crept forward and pointed their game, allowing hunters to ensnare them with nets, and springing spaniels-those that sprang pheasants and partridges for hunting with falcons, rabbits and smaller mammals such as rats and mice for hunting with greyhounds. The spaniel's tail forms the handle of the jug.