Plate

This brown and white transfer-printed and gilded porcelain plate made by an unknown Staffordshire potter features a view of Mount Vernon, the family estate of American Revolutionary General and first President George Washington (1732–1799) located on the Potomac River in Virginia. The same view also embellishes a cup, X.423, in the American Wing's collection. Mount Vernon, built in 1743 by George’s elder half brother, Lawrence (1718–1752), was named after a family friend, Admiral Edward Vernon (1684–1757) of the English navy. George acquired the estate upon his half brother's death in 1752. When George died in 1799, he was buried on the property, where a tomb was erected in his memory. As the country seat of America's founding father, Mount Vernon and Washington's tomb were popular subjects for transfer-printed wares produced for the United States export market. A view of the tomb, for example, decorates a plate, 14.102.219, by William Ridgway, Son & Co. (ca. 1836–1848) in the collection. The view of Mount Vernon on the anonymous plate was based on a drawing by Philadelphia artist William Russell Birch (1755–1834) reproduced in 1804 as an engraving titled "Mount Vernon, the Seat of the Late Gen’l G. Washington" by English-born Philadelphia engraver Samuel Seymour (1796–1823). An adaptation of the same engraving decorates a plate, 98.1.65, by Enoch Wood & Sons (1818–1846). The American Wing’s collection contains numerous other examples of transfer-printed wares, as well as original works by Birch. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term "transfer printing."