Stephen Mullins founded Evanston museum celebrating quirky collectibles, dead at 86

At Stephen Mullins’ wake, his ashes were stored not in an urn but in a ceramic jug bearing his likeness.

It was only fitting. The real estate investor was one of the world’s biggest collectors of Toby jugs and character jugs. He had more than 8,400 of them displayed at his American Toby Jug Museum in Evanston — some 250 years old. It’s been called the only museum anywhere devoted to the offbeat, anthropomorphic drinking vessels.

The Washington Post called them “jugs with mugs.” Character jugs depict faces. Toby jugs display full figures. His museum often pops up on lists of quirky attractions, and it’s been a stop on the Open House Chicago architecture tour.

Mr. Mullins, 86, of Evanston, died June 2 of complications from colorectal cancer.

“He built the biggest collection in the world of Toby jugs,” said Ed Pascoe, owner of North Miami’s Pascoe & Company, a top dealer in ceramic collectibles. “His museum was famous, and he was famous.”

“Steve did more than anyone else to promote the enjoyment of Toby jug collecting,” said Robert Moores of NestEgg Antiques in Godalming, England, “and, of course, made the museum available to the public free of charge.”

Mr. Mullins’ trove includes mugs featuring Black Panther and the rest of the Marvel Universe, Winston Churchill and Hitler, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Kermit the Frog, Captain Kirk, the Flintstones, the stars of “Star Wars,” American presidents, military leaders and cherry-nosed sots in various stages of merry drunkenness.

For his 75th birthday, his family commissioned a set of jugs with his visage, bracketed by a handle that shows Mr. Mullins — a champion swimmer — in his bathing suit, according to Sandra Lachler, his assistant curator. His cremated remains were stored in one of them during a celebration of his life held at the American Toby Jug Museum. “It was a huge party,” Lachler said.

American Toby Jug Museum

Mr. Mullins once said he decided to open a museum devoted to Toby jugs because “my wife told me I had to get them out of the house.” He built it at 910 Chicago Ave.

His unusual devotion began at 15 while at summer camp in Canada. “His counselor had a brochure of Royal Doulton character jugs, and he had $9, and he bought six with those $9,” Lachler said.

“I just liked the faces,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2005.

Young Stephen gave the six to his mom as gifts. By then, he was hooked. He brought back a steamer trunk of jugs after serving in the Army in Germany. He built his collection through dealers, private aficionados and eBay.

In addition to buying trips to England, France and Germany, “He has built this amazing collection of Tobies from Asia, Africa and all kinds of places,” Pascoe said. “Everywhere he went, he was looking for Tobies.”

“As a kid, the original Royal Doulton jug collection sat on a high shelf that went around the perimeter of our kitchen. My dad was continuously pushing them back as the vibrations of the dishwasher and other actions in the house made the jugs dance forward,” said his daughter Beth Mullins Scales. “More than once, one tumbled off making a hole in the collection. In the days before the internet and eBay, this then required quite a search to replace one,” sometimes at the cramped little shops off Portobello Road in London.

”Dad told us the stories of the faces depicted–King Henry’s wives to Shakespeare characters–and one [of] my favorites, a double-sided, double-faced devil,” Mullins Scales said. “The faces were intriguing, but the details told the story: Anne Boleyn, with an axe as the handle.”

About 3,000 people a year visit the museum. Toby jugs date to the 1700s, Lachler said. Some think they were named for a 1750s-era folk hero and English boozer of prodigious appetites, with the fitting nickname of Toby “Philpot” or “Fillpot.” Eventually, hundreds of china and ceramics companies, especially Royal Doulton, manufactured them.

Mr. Mullins co-wrote three books on the figural vessels.

Born in Ottawa, Illinois, he attended New Trier High School and Dartmouth College, was a top swimmer at both and stuck with the sport. He was a member of the U.S. Masters Swimming organization and won many state and national championships and a gold medal at the 2017 FINA Masters World championship in Budapest in the 800-meter freestyle in the 85-89 age bracket. Last year in Evanston, he and his relay team broke four U.S. Masters Swimming records in the 85-and-older group.

After Dartmouth, he got an MBA at the University of Michigan, Lachler said, and worked for Commonwealth Edison and E.F. Hutton before starting a real estate business and co-founding Great Northern Financial Group.

One of his favorite pastimes was touring minor league ballparks. He and Ed Chainski, the best man at his wedding, visited nearly 100 in 40 states.

In addition to his daughters, Mr. Mullins is survived by his wife of 56 years, the former Carol Rian; son Rian Douglas Mullins, and four grandchildren. Services have been held.

His daughter Stephanie Mullins-Wine appreciated his spirit of adventure, whether it was ziplining at 83 or driving with his kids through 49 states, including Alaska. Once, “We hiked into the mountains at night and set up tents in the dark with lots of whining from the teens, only to wake up all alone in the mountains to the most beautiful sunset,” she said.

”He was fun, driven,” Carol Mullins said. “Always onto the next swimming or other adventure. Masters swimming took us to 152 countries. We were due to go to Korea this summer.

”We courted on a Vespa in Manhattan. We made fun of his red, white and blue shoes, but they will become our centerpiece for the first Steve Mullins memorial Fourth of July party.”

Rich Hein / Sun-Times