This page is referenced by:

• 1 media/_s_a4Ab4Ac1BCd1BCe0f0g64hEAEAE1CDD2CAi2Dj0k64l1F4m1F4.jpg media/plate.png 2021-03-30T18:16:59-07:00 Plate, 1820-1825 13 plain 1068816 2021-05-20T19:16:46-07:00 "Plate" is a blue-transfer printed pearlware plate. It was made by a pot-working business in Longport, England, called John Rogers & Son. The business was originally founded by a pair of brothers, named John and George. However, George passed away in 1815 and John also passed away in 1816. John Rogers's son, Spencer, then inherited the business. Spencer renamed the business John Rogers & Son and continued the potworks until 1842 (The Transferware Collectors Club, The Winterthur Museum, & Historic New England 2017). A print of Boston Common and the State House consumes most of the plate while a floral border is printed along the outside edge. Cows are shown grazing on the Common's grass. Behind the cows are a few individuals strolling by sheep and a boy with a wheelbarrow. This depiction of Boston Common conveys the landscape's pastoral nature in the early 19th century (Historic New England).
  
  Material Composition
  
  This plate is considered to be a pearlware relic with a blue transfer-print upon it. It is one of a few Boston Common prints that John Rogers & Son commissioned. Pearlware was introduced in 1779 by Josiah Wedgwood as an alternative to porcelain ware, creamware, and earthenware by covering creamware fabric with a blue-tinged glaze (Sussman 1977, p. 105). Pearlware emerged as a response to the demands of the market; by the 1770s, the market for undecorated creamware was declining so Staffordshire potters sought a new product (Miller & Earls 2008). The initial product that potters came up with was called "China-glaze," which was meant to replicate Chinese porcelain patterns. However, the China-glaze imitation wares could not compete with the original porcelain wares. Wedgwood's pearlware emerged as the temporary solution to the pressures of the market (Miller & Earls 2008). While pearlwares with blue painting on them were the most common type of porcelain pottery found in the early 19th century, printed wares were the most expensive and most limited (Miller & Earls 2008). Because transfer-printed pearlwares were expensive and uncommon compared to alternative ceramic products, "Plate" was a valuable piece of decor in early 19th-century America.
  Transfer prints became the favored decoration of pearlware plates in the 19th century, resulting in the growth of matching serving sets (which cost considerably more to acquiesce) (Sussman 1977, p. 109). "Plate" is one pearlware ceramic out of a larger set that uses the same print of Boston Common, including tea bowls and soup plates.
  
  Produced in Longport, England, the plate was crafted by potters from Staffordshire County. Staffordshire was known for its pottery manufacturing district, colloquially referred to as "The Potteries" (The Transferware Collectors Club, Winterthur Museum, & Historic New England). The conditions of the potteries were variable in the early 19th century. While many of these spaces were occupied by masters and apprentices, child labor was not uncommon; in some rooms, great numbers of children would be congregated to work together while there were other potteries that may have only employed one or two children (Birks). From the medieval period, the potteries catered to local markets. However, England's imperial endeavors in the early modern period introduced new markets for these potters. By the late 17th and 18th centuries, Staffordshire products were found across the Atlantic in the American colonies (The Transferware Collectors Club, Winterthur Museum, & Historic New England). In the 1810s, Staffordshire potters were ready and eager to resume trade with American importers after the duration of the War of 1812 had crippled their access to a vital market for the industry. For a brief period following the conclusion of the War of 1812, a heightened demand for the ceramic trade occurred after renewed American connections to the Staffordshire pottery trade (The Transferware Collectors Club, Winterthur Museum, & Historic New England). In the late 1810s, John Rogers & Son was given an order for "blue printed dining ware, new dark pattern, State House" (The Transferware Collectors Club, Winterthur Museum, & Historic New England). Consequently, it is likely that this plate was imported from the potteries in Staffordshire in the midst of a renewed Atlantic trade for ceramic serving sets. John Rogers & Son manufactured "Plate" and sold it to American importers as a part of a larger set of dining ware.
  Imported serving sets were generally distinctive to wealthy households. Although much of the Massachusetts population ate with forks and knives in this period, most ate from coarse earthenware, wood, or pewter; only a tiny portion of the population dined on imported porcelains (Bushman 1993, p. 78). As matching ceramic serving sets were expensive and unique to the upper class, the material composition of "Plate" suggests that a family with wealth owned it.