American Toby Jug Museum 

Sam Weller character jug produced by Longton New Art Pottery of Longton, England, circa 1955 using its Kelsboro Ware tradename. The son of the coachman, Tony Weller, and faithful manservant of Mr. Pickwick, Sam Weller is one of the most popular and best-conceived of Dickens' characters. With his native charm and endless stream of anecdotes and witticisms, he is the most quoted and copied character in "The Pickwick Papers". Sam is found by Mr. Pickwick as a boot cleaner at the White Hart and employed as a "gen'l'm'n's gen'l'm'n." Quick-witted and good humored, he is the archetypal cockney. Per Mr. Pickwick, Sam has "a considerable knowledge of the world and a good deal of sharpness." Always at the ready to look after his master in every vicissitude, Sam's resourcefulness and experience prove invaluable in helping extricate Mr. Pickwick from the scrapes in which he regularly becomes innocently involved. A boot brush forms the handle of the jug.