Bowl
notes: label: Description
content: This large creamware bowl is decorated with transfer prints on both its inside and outside. The interior center of the bowl features ship flying an American flag. Below the ship are the script initials “MC.” Near the inside edge of the bowl are floral prints. Four prints decorate the outside surface of the bowl—Benjamin Franklin wearing his famous beaver cap, a mythological print involving mermaids, George Washington dressed in his Continental uniform, and an image of the Roman god Neptune. The portrait of Franklin on this bowl is based on the 1777 drawing by French artist Charles Nicolas Cochin. The print of Washington included on this bowl is copied from an engraving based on Pierre Eugene Du Simitière’s portrait of Washington executed in black lead on February 1, 1779. Maritime designs are especially common on English-made transfer printed creamware meant for the American market. Stock prints of ships, like the one on this example, were repeatedly used by English ceramics printers. Sometimes color was added to the print to make it more appealing to the consumer. Robert H. McCauley purchased this bowl from Steele’s Pilgrim Shop owned by Mrs. Frank Steele in West Cummington, MA on August 8, 1939 for $175.00.
label: Description
content: This bowl is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark on the pitcher to tell us who made it, but it is characteristic of wares made in large volume for the American market in both Staffordshire and Liverpool between 1790 and 1820. Pitchers of this shape, with a cream colored glaze over a pale earthenware clay, known as Liverpool type, were the most common vessels to feature transfer prints with subjects commemorating events and significant figures in the early decades of United States’ history. Notwithstanding the tense relationship between Britain and America, Liverpool and Staffordshire printers and potters seized the commercial opportunity offered them in the production of transfer printed earthenwares celebrating the heroes, the military victories, and the virtues of the young republic, and frequently all of these things at once.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Liverpool
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
label: See more items in
content: McCauley Liverpool Pottery
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Robert H. McCauley
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.63.099
label: catalog number
content: 63.099
label: accession number
content: 248881
label: collector/donor number
content: 356
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bowl
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, earthenware, refined (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: transfer printed (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/4 in x 9 15/16 in; 10.795 cm x 25.24125 cm