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Extract from the September 2008 Magazine - Oak and Country Issue
September 2008 Magazine Pages 34-35 DOULTON MOTTO JUGS

by Dick Henrywood
The famous Doulton firm started potting in Lambeth, South London, in about 1815, initially producing utilitarian brown stonewares such as drainpipes and chimney pots. Some decorative wares were made even in the early days when the trading style was Doulton & Watts, but for many collectors interest in Doulton started when they began to produce art wares around 1870. The factory employed students from the Lambeth School of Art and several of them became noted Doulton artists, including Hannah Barlow, George Tinworth, Arthur Barlow, Eliza Simmance, Frank Butler and Mark Marshall.
Most of these artist stonewares were individual pieces, but some styles proved popular and were placed in production, worked by many of the lesser artists and assistants in the studio. Amongst these are a series of relatively simple wares, mostly jugs or mugs, decorated with mottoes, proverbs or similar inscriptions.

September 2008 Magazine Page 37Figure 9. Unusual flask-like jug with several different mottoes including 'More than enough is too much', height 9in. (Gorringes, Lewes)

The first two jugs shown here are of a particularly common shape, found with many different quotations. The first (figure 1) reads:

Who buys land buys stones
Who buys flesh buys bones
Who buys eggs buys many shells
Who buys good ale buys nothing else.

This is a later issue of the design; in earlier versions each line starts 'He that buys ...' instead of 'Who buys ...'. The verse on the second jug (figure 2) reads:

Straight is the line of duty
Curved is the line of beauty
Follow the straight line, thou shalt see
The curved line ever follow thee.

These two inscriptions are both common, usually, but not always on this standard shape.
The next two jugs are both of simple tankard shape, one from the early days, probably in the 1880s (figure 3), decorated with two inscriptions:

Fill what you will
And drink what you fill

and:

The more the merrier
But the fewer the better cheer.

The other jug (figure 4) is later, certainly into the early 20th century, with the verse 'Straight is the line of duty ...' already mentioned above.
Another relatively common form is rather reminiscent of early bellarmines, with a fine bearded mask beneath the spout. This is usually found with one of three short inscriptions, 'Fill what you will ...' again (as shown here in figure 5), 'Good measure, heaven's treasure', or 'More than enough is too much'.
The majority of these Doulton jugs were turned on the potter's wheel, but some employ more moulded decoration. Examples of the type shown in figure 6 are encountered quite frequently, moulded overall with bacchanalian cherubs and grapevines, and with the motto:

Good is not good enough
The best is not too good.

This is often found with matching beakers, probably issued as lemonade sets, each beaker bearing part of the main inscription, usually just 'The best'.