Description:
Staffordshire miniature or toy pearlware platter decorated with a transfer printed design in underglaze blue of an older man looking at a gravestone along with a young boy flying a kite, and another young boy rolling a hoop. Information from Coysh and Henrywood’s The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery, 1780-1880, notes that the scene derives from a print source from Thomas Bewick’s "History of British Birds." The original woodcut engraving did not have a boy flying a kite - perhaps this was added to the engraved copper plate for transfer printing. Instead of being Benjamin Franklin (as some collectors have called the scene), the scene appears to be a message about the transience of life and the evanescence of things. The older man is staring at the tombstone which reads “vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas" (Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity) while the young boy plays without a care or any thought of death. This transfer print seems to appear only on these miniature ceramics – nothing is currently known in a larger size. Historic New England has a partial dinner service of this pattern with a history of ownership by Lydia B. Sterns of Salem, MA. See acc. no. 1941.836.
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+70.173 |
