Description:
English creamware circular plate with tortoiseshell decoration in yellow, blue, grey-green, green, and browns. The lobed rim has six molded panels separated by pairs of small plumes. Three panels have an eagle, military trophies (cannon, axe, and drum), and a portrait of Frederick II (1712-1786) who was a King of Prussia (reigned 1740-1786) and became known as Frederick the Great of Prussia, each against a diamond diaper pattern; these panels alternate with panels with the words "SUCCESS / TO THE" and "KING OF/ PRUSSIA" and "AND HIS / FORCES." These "King of Prussia" plates were very popular during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) which was known as the French and Indian War in the colonies. The war started when Austria, France, Sweden, and Saxony attacked Prussia in an attempt to destroy Frederick the Great's power; England allied herself with Prussia and won significant victories in India and Canada, thus laying the groundwork for the "British Empire." Frederick the Great became a very popular figure in England and the colonies especially after his victory at Rossbach in Saxony against the Franco-Imperial Army on Nov. 5, 1757, and was the subject of many commemorative prints and used as decoration on delft, salt-glazed stoneware and creamware ceramics. England exported many salt-glazed stoneware ceramics to North America where an advertisement for such plates appears in a 1758 "Boston Gazette" and fragments have been excavated in Colonial Williamsburg and Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It appears that the molds used for salt-glazed examples (see HD 64.099) were also used to produce these creamware "King of Prussia" plates. This tortoiseshell plate, a style that seeks to imitate the natural hues and tones of tortoiseshell, which is often associated with Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795) of Fenton Vivian, Staffordshire, but was made in many of the approximately 130 North Staffordshire contemporary potteries. Tortoiseshell wares (creamware sponged with metallic oxide colors suspended in slip) were very popular imports into colonial America; they were fashionable in colonial coastal regions during the third quarter of the 18th century, but their naturalistic colors and patterns remained popular in the Connecticut Valley through the 1780s. In the Connecticut River Valley these ceramics were refered to as "clouded" wares, given their blurry designs. Valley merchants bought tortoiseshell and other ceramics from from New and Boston merchants; between 1772-1775, Samuel Boardman of Wethersfield, Conn., bought "Tortoiseshell" pots and bowls from James and Arthur Jarvis of New York. Although plates were the most popular form of this ware, in 1762 the New York merchants Keeling and Morris advertised "Tortois Table Plate and Dishes of the Neatest Patterns, Tea-Pots, Milk-Pots, Bowls, Cups and Saucers," forms that may have been available in the Connecticut Valley. By the late 1780s, the Valley inhabitants developed a preference for plain creamware over tortoiseshell wares. The plate has seven blue, grey-green, green, and yellow splotches on a brown and cream background covering the well; a steep curvature; the reverse covered with mottled brown over a cream background; and a distinct foot rim.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.030 |
