Plate 1822 - 1837

Editor: Here we have a plate made sometime between 1822 and 1837, credited to James and Ralph Clews, currently residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Looking at the image transferred on this ceramic surface, the scene almost feels… staged. I am wondering about that. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Staged, yes, almost like a memory, or a postcard from a place that only exists in someone's idealized vision. The floral border and landscape feel almost completely disconnected, don’t they? As though two completely different ideas got married against their will. I feel it conveys nostalgia… an imagined past…perhaps with an underlying melancholy. But I do wonder, what makes you say "staged"? Is it the carefully arranged figures, the placid water? Editor: Exactly. The composition is just so neat and tidy. It feels too perfect, even a bit contrived compared to more modern photography with “realism”. What does that disconnection tell us, beyond melancholy and nostalgia? Curator: I find it revealing. This plate becomes a little stage for… projection. The romanticism doesn’t ring true, does it? I can't shake that the artists’ desires feel different than reality here. I wonder if this wasn't a marketing thing or something more. Did they, and did their intended audience actually buy it or was something lost in translation? Did they truly know what they were selling or portraying or were they following direction from somewhere else, unaware of the cultural implications? This makes me ask questions about authenticity and its representation! I am not certain though, as there can be so much that history takes to its own interpretation. Editor: Hmmm. That's a darker, more intriguing reading than I first considered. So much hidden in something meant for daily use. Curator: It's a fascinating journey when the mundane transforms, isn't it? A humble plate, echoing with unspoken narratives.