American Toby Jug Museum 

Mr. Micawber toby jug modeled by Ernest T. Bailey and produced by Burgess & Leigh of Burslem, England, circa 1955 using its Burleigh Ware tradename. Wilkins Micawber, the incurable optimist, is one of Charles Dickens' best-loved characters. He appears in the novel "David Copperfield", and such was his popularity that the term Micawberism, meaning ever-expectant of something turning up, has derived from him. The novel is partly autobiographical, and it has often been proposed that Dickens used his father as the model for Mr. Micawber, who takes the young David in as a lodger at his London house. Micawber's fortunes change nearly as often as his moods. Even when he is arrested for chronic insolvency, he remains ever hopeful of making his fortune. A great orator and letter writer, Micawber later exposes the villainy of Uriah Heep and emigrates with his numerous children and long-suffering wife to Australia, where, relieved of his debts, he becomes a magistrate and newspaper correspondent.