Jug (Pitcher)

Description

This spatterware, aka spongeware, pitcher is unusual for its transfer-printed ornament, which was inspired by Thomas Allom's design "Apartment in a Mandarin's House Near Nanking." The image was reproduced in engraved form by W. Wetherhead for George Newenham Wright's "China, in a series of views, displaying the scenery, architecture, and social habits, of that ancient empire" (published by Fisher, Son & Co., London, 1843). The same tissue-printed design (differing in details and in black) ornaments a different blue spatterware pitcher form, included in the Transferware Collectors Club Database. The database also illustrates a spatterware plate with "Lantern Merchant," another design inspired by Wright's publication. Such views of an imagined East Asia--products of colonialist systems--were created in response to nineteenth-century British and American consumers' Orientalist fascination. Often called "chinoiseries," these designs varied from direct appropriation of Asian motifs to loosely inspired or racist depictions of Asia’s many cultures and peoples. Today these designs are problematic; though some may think of them as attractive and whimsical, others find them insulting or racist. (Winterthur is grateful to The Transferware Collectors Club for research support provided by the Paul and Gladys Richards Research Grant Program for Studies in British Transferware.)