American Toby Jug Museum 

Oliver Twist character jug modeled by Peter Dunn and produced by Kingston Pottery of Hull, England, circa 1980. Oliver Twist is the hero and title character of Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist" (1837). Twist is an orphan who escapes from the workhouse of Mr. Bumble and runs away to London. There he encounters the Artful Dodger and is recruited into a band of street urchins and thieves led by Fagin. Escaping Fagin, he is recaptured by Bill Sykes and his lover, Nancy. He escapes once more with the help of Nancy, who in turn is killed by Sykes for her betrayal. Oliver ends up in the care of lost relatives with a surprise inheritance and blissful existence in the countryside. As a child hero of a novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver's character to criticize public policy towards the poor in 1830s England and to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice.