Plate

This brown and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by the Staffordshire firm of John Ridgway features a view of a log cabin and a man breaking ground with a horse-drawn plow from a series of three views titled "Columbian Star." The series was produced for the United States export market to commemorate the successful 1840 presidential campaign of General William Henry Harrison (1173–1841). Harrison’s so-called "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign was carefully orchestrated to cultivate an image of the candidate as a simple back-woods frontiersman, rugged westerner and advocate of the common man and farmer. The views in the series are surrounded by a standard border of large and small stars between an outer ring of laurel leaves and an inner ring of laurel leaves wound around a rope. A special printed mark for the series typically consists of an oval star-studded belt inscribed "Columbian Star / Octr. 28th 1840 / Jn. Ridgway." The American Wing's collection also contains an unattributed lacy pressed glass cup plate, 45.100.85, and an unattributed free-blown molded glass flask, 40.150.337, with log cabin and cider barrel emblems commemorating the campaign. These pieces typify the iconographic images widely disseminated in association with Harrison's presidential bid. Refer to the Dictionary for definitions of the terms "cup plate” and "transfer printing" and for information about Ridgway.