All the Best Rubbish by Ivor Noel Hume

Author:Ivor Noel Hume
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-10-16T21:00:00+00:00

69. Poorly transfer-printed in underglaze blue, this pitcher recalls the death of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His ship, the Victory, is illustrated on one side and his portrait on the other, with a list of his titles, honors, and battles in between. The rim and handle are sloppily outlined in overglaze brown. Probably made at Swansea. Height 4¾ inches.

In ceramic terms, love of king and country were sometimes rather curiously expressed, as in the case of slipware chamber pots made near London in the third quarter of the seventeenth century after the restoration of Charles II and inscribed PRAISE GOD AND HONOUR THE KING. A century later, Staffordshire salt-glaze potters applied medallions to the fronts of chamber pots bearing the initials and even the portrait of George III. It has been suggested that these were intended to amuse customers who did not like the king, but that explanation can hardly explain a pearlware specimen found in Jamaica decorated in the same way with a coronation portrait of the popular and virginal Queen Victoria.

In Britain, ceramic coronation souvenirs date back at least as far as the seventeenth century, when they were produced both in slipware and delftware, but it was not until the introduction of transfer printing that it became possible to mass-produce them. The long reign of Queen Victoria was marked by a string of souvenirs, though, surprisingly, those of her coronation are among the rarest of commemorative ceramics (Fig. 70). Her jubilee souvenirs, however, are still readily available at modest prices. Artistically, there is not much to be said for the Messrs. Doultons’ tribute to Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897 (Fig. 71), yet there is a piquancy in its prayer ENDUE HER PLENTEOUSLY WITH HEAVENLY GIFTS, GRANT HER IN HEALTH, WEALTH, LONG TO LIVE. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, and in its resonant styling VICTORIA THE BELOVED QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND & THE COLONIES, EMPRESS OF INDIA the words roll from the tongue like waves before the bow of a British dreadnought. To modern Englishmen such mugs are a glimpse of lost glory, but for their original owners they were a tangible reminder of a glorious summer day and the greatest free show of the age. Chauncey Depew, a distinguished American who was there, declared that the reality of the spectacle far exceeded anyone’s expectation. “To have in one hour,” he said, “the representation of the peoples of one quarter of the habitable globe, representing every race and religion, marching under one flag, and expressing in the most emphatic way their loyalty to Queen and Empress, was the most superb exhibition of world-wide Empire and loyalty to a sovereign witnessed in modern times.” Then, politician that he was, Depew quickly covered his tracks, adding, “As an American I ascribe much to the lesson of the American revolution changing the colonial policy of Great Britain, so that she now keeps her colonies instead of losing them.”3

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