Great Deals on Toby Jug - 1Earth Antiques and Appraisals Magazine

Toby Jug and Character Jugs

My husband and I attend several auction sites near where we live. There's one in particular that's our favorite. It's small and seats maybe 100 to 150 people — and it's almost always packed.

Auctions are held usually every three weeks. We typically get a flyer in the mail notifying us about a sneak preview. We can preview the day before or any time the day of.

My husband and I always preview the day before and make notes. Then when we get home, I'll go through the various offerings, getting more information on an item we're interested in.

A great deal on a rare Toby

I'll look them up in books or eBay and Amazon to determine a value. We are prepared (somewhat) then to make bids and stop when our limit is reached.

About a year or so ago, my husband and I attended an auction and found one lot of ruby stained and flashed glass items along with some "just stuff" we wanted to bid on. We paid $ 40.00 for the whole lot.

One of the items was a Blue Willow Toby. Initially, I barely gave a look at the Toby, as I knew nothing about them. For a while, it just hung around in one of our glass cabinets at home.

Then, to our amazement, we found out that this particular Staffordshire England signed Toby is rare — and worth $1,200!

Now that's a good investment if I should say so myself.