Description:
The firm of Ralph Hall (later and Son) was principally involved in the American export trade. The surviving examples of its output demonstrate the changing fashions in the American trade over the life of the business. The early examples feature several series of blue printed wares of the intense deep blue popular in the 1820s, such as ‘Select Views’ and ‘Picturesque Scenery’. The later output was characterised by romantic rather than representational patterns printed in a range of ‘fancy’ colors. Circular press molded plate composed of pearlware with slight indentations on the rim; plate has a cupped rim and a shallow center well, the whole front of the plate is transfer printed in underglaze blue with a edge border of anthemion or acanthus leaves, a rim border of large sized flowers and fruits, the central decoration shows a stately country home with turreted towers with a pond and swans in the foreground within a rococo style round cartouche, printed on the reverse of the plate in underglaze blue in a cartouche, "R.HALL's/ SELECT VIEWS/ WARLEIGH HOUSE/ SOMERSETSHIRE./ Stone China." From the Transferware Collectors' Club database: "Note 'Stone China' in lower section of mark. Although implying a dense body, this term was used inconsistently by various makers. In this case the body is fairly heavy though not as heavy as ironstone. Warleigh is a Georgian-Tudor house, on the bank of the River Avon and 6 miles from Plymouth. It was built by John Webb in about 1814 for Henry Skrine, whose family had lived on this land since 1400 AD."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2015.36.23 |
