American Toby Jug Museum 

Tom Paine toby jug produced by Bairstow Manor Pottery of Hanley, England, in a 2009 limited edition of 1,000. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776-1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the Patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain, hitherto an unpopular cause. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. He believed himself to be a citizen of the world. This toby jug depicts Paine sitting on a barrel, holding a globe in his left hand and a book in his right. It was commissioned by Harveys Brewery for the Paine bicentenary in 2009.