Description:
English creamware plate decorated with a black transfer print of "A Picturesque View of the State of the Nation for February 1778" in the center well, which Robert H. McCauley lists it as a Liverpool transfer design, and three flowers sprays alternating with two butterflies and a dragonfly around the rim with its molded, scalloped edge. According to Sherry Fowble’s "Two Centuries of Prints in America:" “Of all the engravings published by satirical authors during the confrontation between England and America, none was reproduced more widely than 'A Picturesque View of the State of the Nation for February 1778,' which appeared first in the 'Westminster Magazine' for February 1778. Euphemistically referred to as the “Cow Caricature,” this engraved comment on the gravity of England’s plight summed up the sorry tangle. After two years of armed contest with the colonists, the performance of the British North American army was not impressive, and Great Britain’s European neighbors were taking advantage of her diversion. France, with Spain’s encouragement, was supplying equipment and technical advice to the Continental army. Holland was reaping riches in the East Indies trade.” The print’s scene is set across the Delaware River from Philadelphia where, on the right, an English merchant is wringing his hands in anxiety while America presented as an Indian warrior saws the horns off a British milk cow. Meanwhile that same cow is being milked by a Dutch burgher as both France and Spain, dressed as elegant courtiers standing next to the burgher, hold punch bowls waiting for their share of milk. Opposite this group, the British lion sleeps unaware of all that is going on, even as a little dog relieves itself on his back. In the background, across an expanse of water, a city labeled "Philadelphia" with Sir William Howe (1729-1814), commander of the British land forces, and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe (1726-1799), commander of the Royal navy sitting at a table, with a keg and wine bottles on the ground, and Howe's flagship, the "Eagle" appears to be grounded. The prototype for this design seems to have been the frontispiece to Charles Molloy's "Holland’s Ingratitude" published in London in 1666, a satire on the relationship of the European powers during the second Anglo-Dutch War. In it, Charles II feeds a cow, identified as the Netherlands, with hay; the King of Denmark holds her by the horns; the King of Spain is seated on her back; the Bishop of Munster rests his hand on her rump; the King of France holds her tail in one hand and a whip in another, as the cow defecates into the French crown; and an unidentified man (perhaps the young William of Orange) with his back to the viewer sucks at the cow’s udder. Fragments of two of these plates were excavated at Rockett's Landing in Richmond, Virginia, from a circa 1780 context and another fragment of the plate was discovered from a privy at the National Constitution Center site, Philadelphia, PA. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has an identical plate (35.105.1) in their collection.
Label Text:
This plate features a print image of "A Picturesque View of the State of the Nation for February 1778," the most noted and widely distributed political satire of the American Revolution. Euphemistically referred to as the “Cow Caricature,” this engraving referenced the threat to British commerce posed by both the avarice of England’s neighbors and the controversial conduct of the Howe brothers, commanders of the British land and sea forces in America. The print’s scene is set across the Delaware River from Philadelphia where, on the right, an English merchant is wringing his hands in anxiety while America, represented as an Indian warrior, saws the horns off a British milk cow. Meanwhile a Dutch burgher milks the cow as both France and Spain, dressed as elegant courtiers, hold punch bowls waiting for their share of milk. Opposite this group the British lion sleeps, unaware of all that is going on, even as a little dog relieves itself on his back. In the background Sir William Howe (1729-1814) and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe (1726-1799) sit at a table. Their slumped figures, surrounded by kegs and wine bottles on the ground, and Howe’s flagship the Eagle having run aground, satirize their conduct during the war. While no evidence has yet determined that similar ceramics were imported into the Connecticut River Valley, fragments of two of these plates have been excavated at Rockett's Landing in Richmond, Virginia, from a circa 1780 context.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.24 |
