Plate

This black and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by the Staffordshire firm of J. & T. Edwards features a view from the "Boston Mails" series registered in 1841 and produced for the American export market. Depending on the size of a piece, views in the series are typically surrounded by a border of two, three or four reserves depicting two or more of the wooden sidewheelers "Britannia," "Acadia," "Caledonia" and "Columbia" owned by Samuel Cunard (ca. 1787–1865), which traveled from Liverpool, England to Boston, Massachusetts via Halifax, Canada (Nova Scotia) from about 1840 to 1850. Operating as the British & North American Royal Mail Stram Packet Company, Cunard's fleet established the first regular transatlantic mail service by steam, constituting one of the most important nautical events of the period and marking the beginning of the noted Cunard Line of transatlantic passenger service that remains in operation today. Transfer-printed wares such as those decorated with the "Boston Mails" series of views may have been the kind of tablewares used on board Cunard's fleet. The five different views of ship interiors that comprise the series depict three gentlemen’s cabins, a ladies' cabin and a saloon. Occasionally the firm printed the views without borders as on the present plate depicting one of the gentlemen’s cabins. Edwards' view of the gentlemen's cabin is a valuable record of the decoration of ship interiors, including such details as a rare form of sinumbra chandelier above the Regency style pedestal table and chairs and the trefoil patterned woven carpet on the floor. Usually pieces in the series were printed in light blue, although rare examples like the plate were printed in monochrome black, purple or brown. Some were also printed in several colors for a polychrome effect. The views appear on tea and dinner services and other odd pieces. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term “transfer printing" and for information about Edwards.