June 8, 1976
As part of the Bicentennial celebration, the Department of Decorative Arts of The Brooklyn Museum has organized an exhibition of early nineteenth-century English Staffordshire pottery designed for export to the burgeoning new American nation. Pride of the Republic: America on English Pottery, 1800-1840 consists of more than seventy-five platters, plates, bowls, tea pots and tureens decorated with copperplate engravings of American views, themes, heroes, natural wonders, and technological achievements. Because of their local and patriotic appeal, these wares were enormously popular in the early days of the republic. The exhibition, to continue through the end of the Bicentennial year, marks the first time that selections from the Museum's extensive collection have been on view. Admission to The Brooklyn Museum is free.
In the explanatory text for the exhibition, Donald C. Peirce, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts, who organized the show, says that "In America, the decades following The War of 1812 have been characterized as ‘The Era of Good Feeling.’ Two military victories against England, first, the Revolutionary War, and then, The War of 1812, seemed to assure the success of the democratic experiment and the endurance of the United States as an independent republic. Urbanization, burgeoning industries and ever-increasing expansion westward promised economic growth not only for the young republic but also for each citizen who was wise enough to grasp the opportunities. Patriotic fervor was at a peak in the 1820’s when crowds flocked for a glimpse of the Revolutionary War hero, General Lafayette, as he triumphantly toured American cities on his first return to the United States after The War of Independence. Clearly, pride dominated the American spirit at this time, pride in technological achievement, growing cities, the natural beauty of the landscape, American heroes and American promise."
The potters of Staffordshire in the Midlands of England recognized the economic potential of this pride and confidence. Staffordshire had always been a pottery center in England, Mr. Peirce points out, but the eighteenth century saw the transformation of a craftsman’s trade into a major industry, utilizing every available means of mass production and distribution and providing employment for over 50,000 persons. By using cheap methods of manufacture and decoration, like under-glaze transfer printing, and utilizing the rich dark cobalt blue color to hide glaze and body imperfections in the mass-produced wares, the shrewd Staffordshire industrialists were able to capitalize on America’s seemingly insatiable desire to celebrate itself.
For the first time in the American experience, ceramic table wares were available in great quantity to all levels of society. On the tables of small farmers and urban workers, English transfer wares began to replace the traditional hodge-podge of ceramics, pewter and woodenwares.
Many of the design sources for the views on Staffordshire pottery have been traced to existing paintings, prints, and book illustrations. Frequently, however, the views on Staffordshire pottery are all that survive of an America as it was or hoped to be in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1976, 016-017 View Original
