J. GOODWIN VIEWS OF LONDON-THE BANK ANTIQUE PLATE BRITISH HISTORICAL

This Super Rare Plate ranks in the Historical Staffordshire Category of English Transferware Ironstone. It was manufactured by J. Goodwin, Seacombe Pottery located in Liverpool, England. This factory operated 1835-1864.

The plate dates approximately 1844-1845. It is entitled “VIEWS OF LONDON” on back of the plate. The actual view in the Series is “THE BANK”. This plate fits into the category of British Historical China. It is brown & white transfer ware (print) on an ironstone medium. It measures 10 1/2" Diameter. It is paneled with the “Alhambra” border which depicts Moorish castles.

The scene is actually “THE BANK OF ENGLAND” that was first built by Sampson in 1732-1734, added to by Sir Robert Taylor between 1766 and 1783, and largely rebuilt by Sir John Soane between 1788 and 1883. This would be the building depicted. It has since been demolished and rebuilt for a second time.

COMMENT: The name “Alhambra” refers to the ancient royal palace and fortress in Spain, one of the finest examples of Moorish art in the world, which stands on a hill overlooking the city of Granada” (quote taken from the Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880 by A.W. Coysh and R.K. Henrywood, copyright. 1982, Baron Publishing, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng., Pg.18).

PROVENANCE: This plate was originally found in Quebec and has also been in my private collection over twenty three years. These London Views are considerably rare and are highly sought after by connoisseur collectors and museums.

Why this plate had surfaced in Quebec is probably due to the fact that the Goodwin family imported to their china warehouses in Ontario lots of china for distribution throughout the colonies (called the Dominion of Canada in 1867, when Upper and Lower Canada united).

HISTORICAL STAFFORDSHIRE: This plate falls into a very special category being referred to as Historical Staffordshire or Historical China. This specific plate would be termed as British Historic. This means that the views are actual typographical views of real places, events (i.e. Battle Scenes), or people in history. This category of transferware scenes was made for export to the colonies (Canada) and the United States as a means of educating the public what the rest of the world looked liked.

You must remember we were not globally plugged in by telephone, radio, television or the internet in the 1840’s. So the only means of communication was mail. So the potters figured one way of communicating how the rest of the world looked at the time would be to transfer scenes on china and ship it abroad.

The potters traveled abroad for inspiration; they would gather information and prints from artist and illustrators who did engravings and sketches as they too traveled.

One great example of this would be the famous Henry Bartlett Views. His sketches were avidly transferred onto ironstone by some of the British potters at the time; Francis Morley is one prime example with his manufacture of Canadian Views on china in the 1840’s period. Another would be that of the Davenport factory that transferred onto pearlware six major views of Montreal in the 1830’s, taken from Robert Auchmuty Sproule watercolors depicting Views of Montréal. What wonderful watercolors and fabulous rare scenes that were transferred onto the “pearlware” medium in blue and white in 1830! Robert Sproule first published these scenes in Nov. 1829.

I was the proud owner of several of the watercolors as well as a beautiful platter Davenport’s Montreal, some twenty three years ago. The pleasure of owing these beautiful pieces of history was immeasurable as I am sure today’s owners are experiencing.

We have three basic categories of Historical China: (1) American Views, (2) British Views and (3) Canadian Views. There are others as well depicting the Middle East which were transferred by other British potters at the time e.g. Ridgways Beauties of America.

The very first Historical China Views was produced in a very intense “dark inky blue” which some dealers call “flow blue”. Technically it is “Historical Blue” produced in 1800-1820. One such example would be the early Enoch Wood 1790-1820 period; another would be Ralph Hall, and yet another would be Stevenson. Afterwards, Ridgways produced their “pale blue” transfer views.

As we came into the 1840’s period colors were that of dark browns, greens, pinks and polychrome scenes. Whatever! They are all fantastic irrespective of color and deserve great respect and command to be acquired by connoisseur collectors and museums. Such items as these are not in great abundance and just aimlessly floating around out there. Availability is less and less as the years pass by; and what is made available is steadily increasing price wise. Such pieces are an excellent investment and hold strong market value and will continue to escalate in value. Truly a great piece for your historical collection! Quite rare!

CONDITION: Excellent! This plate has an excellent intense dark brown color transfer; the quality of transfer print is excellent as well. There are no kiln splits or sagging and no glaze bubbles, nor fork or knife scratches. There are not too many of these plates floating around in the market place in any condition!