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Gravy Bowl with Lid, "Passaic Falls, State of New Jersey"

Decorative Arts and Design

These ceramics are decorated with American landscape scenes and were made in England for the American market. Before the 1840s, only the elite could afford dinnerware, then made of expensive porcelain. One of the early fruits of the Industrial Revolution was the production of inexpensive machine-molded and mechanically decorated earthenware for the middle class. These objects were decorated by the transfer technique, in which the scene is engraved on a metal plate, inked, printed on paper, and then pressed, or transferred, onto the ceramic body.
MEDIUM Earthenware
DATES ca. 1825–1830
DIMENSIONS 6 1/8 x 5 5/8 x 4 13/16 in. (15.6 x 14.3 x 12.2 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS On bottom: printed in blue underglaze, eagle bearing banner which reads, "E PLURIBUS UNUM" standing on a rectangle which has printed within "PASSAIC FALLS / STATE OF NEW JERSEY"; impressed "B"
SIGNATURE no signature
INSCRIPTIONS no inscriptions
ACCESSION NUMBER 60.213.189a-b
CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. William C. Esty
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Earthenware gravy bowl (a) and lid (b) with blue under glaze decoration (pictured with platter, 60.213.187). (a) Bowl: oval base with feather fleur-de-lis handles on either end. Border: Shells with seaweed and foliage around base, top edge of bowl and edge of lid. View on side: "Passaic Falls," riverside with falls between two bluffs with figure standing on shore on both sides of bowl. Source of view: Drawing by Alexander Robertson (1768-1841). (b) Lid: oval with notch cut out for ladle in one end with rose shaped finial. Condition: Good, little chip on edge of lid, chip on edge of bowl.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Enoch Wood & Sons (active 1818–1846). Gravy Bowl with Lid, "Passaic Falls, State of New Jersey," ca. 1825–1830. Earthenware, 6 1/8 x 5 5/8 x 4 13/16 in. (15.6 x 14.3 x 12.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. William C. Esty, 60.213.189a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 60.213.187_60.213.189a-b_reference_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE group, 60.213.187_60.213.189a-b_reference_SL1.jpg.
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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