Plate (Child's or alphabet plate)

Description

From the 1800s onward, advances in ceramic manufacturing and shipping made more wares available to larger audiences, including children. Parents, for example, acquired small plates and mugs as gifts or toys towards furthering their children's education. The Brownhills Pottery's "Famous Places" series of transfer-printed earthenware plates and mugs not only displays the English alphabet in upper case but also shares images--most likely copied from published prints--of important locals across the world. This plate is printed in dark brown with details picked out in hand-painted red and green. The rectangular scene bears the series title "FAMOUS PLACES" above an urban view with a large central building. Below, the scene is identified as "NEW YORK CITY HALL." The smaller circular scene portrays Mount Vernon house above the title "MOUNT VERNON." The underside of the plate bears the transfer-printed pattern registry mark "R\d No. 26734" (for 1895) in a rectangle over the factory mark, "B.P. C\o." (for the Brownhills Pottery Company).