Toby jug “John Bull”

The character of John Bull was created in 1712 by John Arbuthnot and initially distributed by British publishers, but later also propagated by the German-American illustrator Thomas Nast. John Bull is usually portrayed as a corpulent man whose clothing – tail coat, knee breeches, a Union Jack waistcoat and a top hat – identifies him as a member of the British middle class. He appears in many versions in British cartoons of the 19th and early 20th century, but at the time of the First World War also enjoyed popularity on the German side as a caricature of the English enemy.