Plate

This blue and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by an unknown Staffordshire firm features a view of the "President's House," as the White House in Washington, District of Columbia was called during much of the nineteenth century. The border design is a curious combination of classical urns, floral sprays and exotic mountain scenery in four reserves along the rim. At least nine different views consisting of exotic garden scenery and American buildings are known to have been produced with this same or a nearly identical border. They are marked, however, with several different pattern names indicating that they were made by several different makers. This was common among nineteenth-century Staffordshire potters, who often plagiarized the work of competitors to capitalize on a popular subject to save the time and cost of designing an original view or border pattern. Symbolic of American self-government and grand Neoclassical architecture befitting a young republic, the President's House was a popular subject for transfer-printed export wares destined for patriotic American consumers. The neo-Palladian structure was originally designed in 1792 by James Hoban (1756–1821), an immigrant Irish architect practicing in Charleston, South Carolina. The view on the plate, however, depicts later additions of two flanking pavilions completed in 1824 after designs by Thomas Jefferson (1742–1826), who had sponsored the original competition designs in 1792. The view was based on a drawing by a little-known artist named H. Brown reproduced as an engraving titled "The President's House, Washington" by Fenner, Sear & Co. in John Howard Hinton's "The History and Topography of the United States of North America" (London, 1830–1832). An adaptation of the same engraving also appears on a plate, 14.102.282, by Job & John Jackson. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term “transfer printing" and for information about Jackson.