This STAFFORDSHIRE STANDING ROTUND TOBY PEPPER POT, with his pierced tricorn hat, is believed to date from the late 19th century.  He is dressed in a long open cobalt blue jacket with orange pants, a pink waist coat and a green tie.  He is  portrayed holding a flagon of ale and is mounted onto a circular hollow base encircled with a gilt band.  His yellow tricorn hat has multiple holes for the pepper shaker.  He has a hole to the rear for filling with pepper corns and no cork. All as per pictures.  He is unmarked.

There are competing theories for the origin of the name "Toby Jug.”  The majority opinion is that it was named after the character of Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night. It comes from the French word "tope" – to drink hard (i.e. Tope, Toper, Toby).  Most likely, it was named after a notorious 18th century Yorkshire drinker, Henry Elwes, who was known as "Toby Fillpot" (or Philpot) and was inspired by an old English drinking song, "The Brown Jug", which paid tribute to Toby Fillpot, whose ashes were made into Toby's jug; the popular verses were first published in 1761.

Toby was clearly a popular character in pubs across England from anearly point, and potters were making seated images of him from the middle of the 18th century both in the form of mugs and jugs (which alone had a spout).   A standing Toby caster appears to have first appeared at the end of the century or the beginning of the 19th.  This pottery form substituted for the earlier type of silver “caster.”  There were as many as three silver casters put on the formal table: one for salt, one for pepper and one for sugar (the name for the last, a “muffineer,” so named for spreading sugar on muffins).  It was a jump from the simple silver form of the 18th century castor to a pepper pot in the form of “Toby,” but that is what happened, and they were exported all over the world.

This Toby could be fully functional again on your table casting out pepper, or  looking pleasantly out of a cabinet and amusing your guests.