American Toby Jug Museum 

Susie Cooper medium sized prototype toby jug modeled by Douglas V. Tootle and produced by Kevin Francis Ceramics of Stoke-on-Trent, England, in 1994. Susan Vera Cooper (1902 - 1995) was a prolific English ceramic designer working in the Stoke-on-Trent pottery industries from the 1920s to the 1980s. Born in Burslem, Staffordshire, she began her art education by attending night classes at the Burslem School of Art. In 1922 she joined the ceramics firm A. E. Gray & Co. Ltd, partially as a means to gain entry to the Royal College of Art. In 1929, motivated by her desire to design ceramic shapes in addition to decors, she set up her own business, as Susie Cooper Potteries. She worked for many other pottery firms over the next several decades, including Wedgwood. In 1940 she was awarded Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts.