Plate

This blue and white transfer-printed plate made by the Staffordshire firm of Enoch Wood & Sons features a view of Albany, the capitol of New York. The same view also appears on a soup plate, 14.102.97, by Wood & Sons. Profiting from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and its location at the junction of several railroads, Albany became an important nineteenth-century center of trade for western New York and a popular subject for transfer-printed export wares destined for American consumers. Wood & Sons' rendition of Albany, however, places greater emphasis on the natural beauty of the surrounding Hudson River landscape by adding bucolic notes of cows and rolling pastures in the foreground and distancing the viewer from the crowded city skyline on the opposite river bank. This was typical of nineteenth-century topographical views, which tended to romanticize the growth of towns and cities by masking their dirtiness and crowding. Similarly idealized views of Albany embellish a platter, 10.57.3, by Job & John Jackson (1831–1835) and a plate, 14.102.234, by an unknown maker. Wood & Sons' view may have been based on a watercolor sketch by Russian diplomat-artist Pavel (Paul) Petrovich Svinin (1788–1839) reproduced as an engraving titled "Albany, New York" in Svinin's "An Attempt at a Pictorial Account of a Trip Across North America" (St. Petersburg, ca. 1818). Svinin visited Albany sometime between 1811 and 1813 while traveling through the United States as Secretary to the Consul General of Russia. An original Svinin watercolor of Albany, 42.95.10, is in the American Wing's collection. Wood & Sons adapted Svinin’s composition for a series of approximately thirty-one American and Canadian views with symmetrical shell borders produced for the North American export market. While the views reflect romantic notions of the countryside and the growth of towns and cities, the shell border reflects the development of conchology as a new area of scientific study by the early nineteenth century. The printed back mark for the series consists of the Great Seal of America above a rectangular cartouche framing the title of the individual view. A view of Niagara Falls on another plate, 14.102.114, from the series was also based on Svinin's "Pictorial Account." The collection also contains additional pieces by Wood & Sons and Svinin. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term "transfer printing" and for information about the above-mentioned firms.