Plate

This blue and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by the Staffordshire firm of Charles Meigh features a view of City Hall in New York. Located near the intersection of Broadway and Park Row, City Hall was designed by New York architect John McComb, Jr. (1765–1853) and French-born New York engineer-architect Joseph Francois Mangin (?–after 1818). Situated on scenic landscaped grounds of City Hall Park, its expansive rusticated Massachusetts marble facade fashioned in an architectural blend of French Renaissance and English Georgian styles distinguished the edifice as one of the most impressive municipal buildings of the era. It was also a popular subject for transfer-printed export wares because of its obvious appeal to civic-minded American consumers. Meigh's view was based on a drawing by English artist William Henry Bartlett (1809–1854) engraved in 1838 by English engraver Samuel Lacey (active 1818–1857) and reproduced as "The Park and City Hall, New York" in Nathaniel Parker Willis' "American Scenery" (London, 1840). Meigh included the view in its "American Cities and Scenery" series consisting of approximately eighteen American views manufactured for the United States export market with a border of inward curving arches of forget-me-not wreaths and ferns. The American Wing's collection also contains original works by Bartlett. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term “transfer printing" and for information about Meigh.