Mug
notes: label: Description
content: This transfer printed creamware mug is decorated with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on one side and a wildflower on the other. The portrait of Franklin depicts him in a beaver cap with flanked by rococo flourishes. The flourishes read “Benj.n Franklin LLD FRS.” Below the portrait is written, “Born at Boston in New England 17 Jan. 1706.” The portrait of Franklin on this bowl is based on the 1777 drawing by French artist Charles Nicolas Cochin. This is one of the most famous portraits of Franklin. Both of Franklin’s titles are included here. LLD signifies him as a Doctor of Law and FRS signifies him as a Fellow of the Royal Society due to his scientific discoveries.
label: Description
content: This mug is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark 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
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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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.63.127
label: catalog number
content: 63.127
label: accession number
content: 248619
label: collector/donor number
content: 44-352
objectType: label: Object Name
content: mug
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, black (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 7/8 in x 5 in x 3 1/2 in; 12.3825 cm x 12.7 cm x 8.89 cm