Plate 1837 - 1848

This plate was made by Mellor, Venables & Co. in Burslem, England between 1831 and 1851, using earthenware with transfer printing. Transferware plates such as this one were a staple of middle class life in both England and the United States during the mid-19th century. Manufacturers mass produced transferware with a huge variety of images, from landscapes to historical scenes. Because the images were printed, manufacturers could copy popular imagery quickly and cheaply, making fashionable designs available to a broad public. Here, the central image is a European imagining of a generic Indigenous American. Such images helped to naturalize the idea of European settlement as an inevitable and even a desirable historical development. The historian examines sources such as company records, trade publications, and census data to learn more about the social and economic context in which these objects were made and used. By doing so, we are better placed to understand their cultural impact.