American Toby Jug Museum 

The Wife of Bath character jug prototype modeled by William K. Harper and produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, in 1987. Alisoun, the Wife of Bath, is one of the most popular characters in Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales", her "Wife’s Tale" one of the most classic. Chaucer describes her as not beautiful, but forceful and vivacious. Her bright clothes and elaborate headdress, “coverchiefs,” are ostentatious rather than elegant; her hat is as broad as a “bokeler” (a buckler or small shield). She has been widowed five times. Her reasons for travel (in this case London to Canterbury) are a love of adventure and social opportunities. As most pilgrims are men, perhaps one of them might be her next husband! Her tale is of a lusty bachelor in King Arthur’s day who is condemned to die for raping a young maiden. He will be spared if he can determine what it is that women most desire. In desperation he agrees to marry an old, ugly woman in return for the answer that women most desire sovereignty over their husbands. He is spared. Turning away from his bride on their wedding night he receives from her the choice of old, ugly and faithful or young, beautiful and probably unchaste. He tells her to choose, thus granting her the sovereignty she seeks, whereupon she turns into a beautiful maiden. They live thereafter in perfect joy. This prototype, along with The Miller, was intended to be a part of a Canterbury Tales series. The project was discontinued when Doulton decided the characters were not sufficiently recognized to be commercially successful. Folded linen forms the handle of the jug.