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Staffordshire blue-and-white transfer-printed ceramics received their early inspiration from Chinese blue-and-white wares. The Chinese introduced cobalt blue as a painted decoration on porcelain in the fifteenth century. Europeans greatly admired these blue-and-white ceramics. By the mid-seventeenth century, vast quantities of Chinese blue-and white-wares were being shipped to Europe. After the technique of transfer-printing ceramics came into use in the 1780s, English manufacturers emulated original Chinese patterns, such as the Willow pattern, using the new technique. As it became popular for manufacturers to copy directly from engraved prints, many Chinese scenes were drawn from these. The print used on these plates, “View of the River Ning-Po,” was created by William Alexander (1767–1816) and made into an engraving by George Cooke (1781–1834). The place they refer to, Ningpo, located in Eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is now known as Ningbo. The river they refer to is the Yong River, one of China’s main rivers, which runs through the city. The unknown manufacturer of the two platters on display cleverly extracted several of the figures from the engraving for one of the platters, and another set of figures from the same engraving for another platter.
This image was posted on September 15, 2016.