Plate

This blue and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by the Staffordshire firm of Enoch Wood & Sons features a view of Montmorenci (Montmorency) fall below Quebec, Canada. Montmorenci Falls were a famous early nineteenth-century tourist attraction for Canadians and Americans visiting Quebec. The little observation house on a platform projecting into the air above the falls was built in 1782 by Sir Frederick Haldimand (1718–1791), a general who fought for the British army during the American Revolutionary War and was Governor-in-Chief of Quebec. By 1800 the house had collapsed, indicating that Wood & Sons used a presently unidentified eighteenth-century print source. Wood & Sons included the view in its series of approximately thirty-one American and Canadian scenic views with symmetrical shell borders produced for the North American export market. The American Wing's collection contains additional pieces from the same series. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term “transfer printing" and for information about Wood & Sons.