Holdings Information

Bibliographic Record Display

• Title:[Western Americana transfer china collection].
  
• Production:[England, France, and Austria], [between 1840 and 1899]
  
• Physical Description:10 items : earthenware and porcelain ; 25 cm and smaller (in 4 boxes)
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:BEINECKE (Non-Circulating)
    Request for Use in the Beinecke Reading Room
    
    
  • Call Number: WA MSS S-3018
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    
  • Notes: Former call number: WA Objects
    

   
• Notes:Box 1 contains Nauvoo Temple soup plate. Box 2 contains four French plates. Box 3 contains Texian Campaigne and Baranoff Castle plates. Box 4 contains two cups and one saucer.
  Title devised by cataloger.
  Inscriptions in English and French.
  Sources unknown.
  
• Access and use:This material is open for research.
• Biographical / Historical note:Transfer china, or transferware, is pottery decorated by means of transferring a print from a copper plate to a specially sized paper, and then to the body of the pottery; the design is protected by a transparent overglaze.
  
• Summary:A collection of ten pieces of transferware made by manufacturers in England, France, and Austria, which had been decorated with images related to the American West before being exported to the United States.
  Four black transfer-printed plates (21 cm) with images depicting scenes of excitement and disillusionment during the California Gold Rush. The plates each have a different central image and numbered caption, and each bears a backstamp of "LeBeuf, Milliet et Cie / Medailles d'or 1834 39 44 et 49 / Porcelaine opaque / Creil & Montereau." Designs are: "No. 4 Le gouverneur trouve le moyen d'attacher les sentinnelles a leur consigne"; "No. 10 Pour conserver son or, il ne faut dormir que d'un oeil"; "No. 11 Captaine, j'ai gagne un million aux mines, je veux retourner en france..."; and "No. 12 Bilboquet montrant au public les echantillons d'or de la Californie." Louis-Martin Lebeuf and Jean Baptiste Gratien Milliet became partners in the pottery business in 1841.
  One dark blue transfer-printed soup plate (25 cm) with slightly scalloped edges bearing an image of the Nauvoo Temple constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois. The border contains the names of the Bretheren of the Mormon church, and the central view depicts a temple building with cupola and angel weathervane, encircled by the inscription "The House of the Lord Built by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Commenced April 6th, 1841. Holiness to the Lord." Beneath the central image is the inscription "Temple of Nauvoo / Wm. Weeks -- Archit t/c" The plate is marked with the backstamp of "J Twigg." Joseph Twigg established his pottery in Newhill, Yorkshire, in 1809.
  One purple transfer printed plate (24 cm) with a central image of men on horseback dressed in unidentified European military uniforms passing two men seated on the ground; a fortress and palm trees appear in the background. The plate has slightly scalloped edges and a border with alternating images of the Roman goddess Ceres and a banner draped over a drum, sword, horn, and other military items. It is marked with the backstamp of "Texian Campaigne" within a fan-shaped cartouche with "J. B." beneath it. Texian Campaigne china was produced by several manufacturers to commemorate the war between Mexico and the United States (1846-1848), but the pattern was created before that war and probably marketed to commemorate Texas's revolution for independence against Mexico, 1835 to 1836. James Beech operated the Lion Works in Tunstall from 1821 to 1844, and likely introduced his Texian pattern about 1837 to 1840.
  One brown transfer printed plate (20 cm) with slightly scalloped edges rimmed in gold and a central image of two buildings with the inscription "Baranoff Castle, Sitka, Alaska" beneath. Hand-painted flowers appear above and below the transfer print. The number "32" is painted on the reverse and there is no backstamp. The buildings shown were constructed by the Russian-American Company and include the Governor's House, which was built in 1836 and destroyed by fire in 1894.
  One cup and saucer (saucer 14.5 cm) with a transfer-printed image of tents, a pond, and horses on one side, and the inscription "A Horse Round-Up Near Billings, Mont." beneath the image. The cup and saucer are gilt-edged and both bear a backstamp of "Wheelock Imperial Austria / Made for Yegen Bros. Billings, Mont." The Yegen Brothers drygoods store was established in Billings in 1894, the same year Charles Wheelock and John Roth, importers and retail merchants of china and glassware in Peoria, Illinois, began working with European manufacturers to create souvenir china decorated with American scenes.
  Also present is one white porcelain teacup (6 x 7 cm) with no transfer pattern. It is unmarked.
  
• Format:Visual Material
• Cite as:Western Americana Transfer China Collection. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
  
• Subjects:Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  LeBeuf, Milliet et Cie.
  Nauvoo Temple (Nauvoo, Ill. : 1841-1850)--Pictorial works.
  Souvenir china.
  Billings (Mont.)--Pictorial works.
  California--Gold discoveries--Pictorial works.
  Nauvoo (Ill.)--Pictorial works.
  Sitka (Alaska)--Pictorial works.
  Texas--History--Revolution, 1835-1836--Pictorial works.
  
• Genre/Form:Earthenware--England--19th century.
  Earthenware--France--19th century.
  Souvenirs--United States--19th century.
  Transferware--Austria--19th century.
  Transferware--England--19th century.
  Transferware--France--19th century.