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COPYRIGHT 2004 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
TABLEWARE DESIGNS PRODUCED IN BRITAIN FOR EXPORT TO THE United States were clearly intended to appeal to the American consumer, and their pictorial motifs and pattern names reflect what the British designers understood to be America's history and the national character of its people. For many of these wares produced in the twentieth century, the designers drew upon two major sources of inspiration: a tradition of British export pottery dating back to the early nineteenth century, and their own cultural assumptions based upon aspects of American life that were popularized, and to some extent mythologized, in the British society of the time.
One company in particular, Johnson Brothers, has produced export wares for the United States for 130 years, and was described in 1908 by the Staffordshire The Pottery Gazette as "the largest pottery manufacturers in the world" (The Pottery Gazette 325). Johnson Brothers produced several important "American" patterns, including "Historic America," which was first introduced in 1939 and reissued in 2002. The pattern names, images, and backstamps reflect evidence of how British designers viewed and interpreted American culture.
The production of Staffordshire transferware decorated with American scenes dated back at least as far as the early nineteenth century. According to Edwin Atlee Barber,
The production of Liverpool creamware, with black, brown, green and red printed designs relating to America, extended over a period of some twenty-five years--from about 1790 to 1815. The black printed and lustered creamware and the dark-blue china of the Staffordshire potteries began to take the place of the Liverpool products soon after the War of 1812, and blue printed china continued to be manufactured until about 1830 ... This ware, in turn, was gradually superseded by the Staffordshire crockery, with prints in various colors,--red, green, light blue, black, brown and purple,--which was made in great abundance for at least fifteen years longer, or down to about 1840. (159)
Barber also stated that William Ridgway had manufactured a dinner service ornamented with American scenery in about 1843 (70). Ridgway owned the Charles Street Works in Hanley, and was a major producer of white granite goods for the American market between 1830 and 1850 (Jewitt 503). The Charles Street pottery was later taken over by J. W. Pankhurst, who sold out to Alfred and Frederick Johnson, and the newly created firm of Johnson Brothers was producing export wares for the United States as early as 1872. (1)
The images on the transferware of the early to mid-nineteenth century were typically scenes of the major cities of the time and based on contemporary engravings. The Capitol in Washington DC was a subject produced by several potteries, including Enoch Wood & Sons, Ralph Stevenson, and William Ridgway (Larsen 300-02); other frequent subjects included scenes of Albany, New York City, and Boston, major population centers at the time. (2) Figure 1 shows "Harvard College," produced by Ralph Stevenson & Williams of Cobridge. Stevenson was active between 1802 and 1840 (Larsen 124), and the plate may have been issued to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the college's founding in 1636. The image is believed to be an imitation of a drawing by Alvin Fisher, engraved by Charles C. Torrey in 1823, entitled "North East View of the Several Halls of Harvard College, Taken from the Craigie Road" (Larsen 126).
According to a study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sales records, the vast majority of British pottery exports to America were of white granite ware, not decorative scenes: "The specialised Staffordshire wares printed with American themes were on the fringe of the trade. Their ubiquity in American Museums is a reflection of already gaining collectable status by the end of the nineteenth century, not their original popularity" (Ewins, "A Picture" 55). Nevertheless, there was a continuous demand for American scenes, as demonstrated by the production of more than 1,100 different views in Wedgwood's "Old Blue Historical" series, made after 1900 for the Boston import firm Jones, McDuffee & Stratton (Stefano 73). (3)
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Between 1880 and 1920, Johnson Brothers established itself as a leading producer of export ware. According to the authors of Staffordshire Pots & Potters in 1906,
... the great "American" firms--that is, those which supply the American market, such as Meakin's, Johnson Bros., Maddock's, and Grindley's--deserve notice less on account of their enormous exportation than the fact that they exhibit the Staffordshire characteristic of making ware which of its kind is unrivalled, at any rate, in respect of its durability and finish. (Rhead and Rhead 313-14)
This was white ware, plain or decorated with floral or geometric transfer motifs. What identified these patterns as destined for the American market was the pattern name imprinted on the backstamp. Regional names included "Savannah," a delicate green lacy pattern with gold trim, and "Oregon," a pattern in the flow blue style, also with gold trim. Another pattern visually similar to "Savannah" was "Franklin," presumably named for the American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin. Robert Copeland has noted that in "patterns specifically aimed at the American market ... designs were named appropriately in the belief that the name would help to attract customers ... 'Columbia' was a popular name for romantic scenes" (17). The Johnson Brothers version of Columbia was a brown leaf-and-flower design on an unusual asymmetrical shape. The name was derived from that of Christopher Columbus, and was used in reference to a female allegorical figure representing the United States and often clothed in red, white, and blue.
The most significant venture into American...
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