Boston State House Stafforshire Blue & White Pottery Plates, Rogers - a Pair

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Boston State House Staffordshire Pair of Pottery Plates
John Rogers & Son,
1825

This Rogers underglaze blue printed plate of … Read more Boston State House Staffordshire Pair of Pottery Plates
John Rogers & Son,
1825

This Rogers underglaze blue printed plate of the Boston State House is No. 01 of three versions of the Boston State House by Rogers.

Built around 1795, the Boston State House was designed by the self-taught architect Charles Bulfinch, who also built state houses for Connecticut (1796) and Maine (1832) based on his design for the Somerset House in London.

Dimensions: 8 3/4 inch diameter

Mark: One impressed ROGERS on base.

See Patriotic America: Blue Printed Pottery Celebrating a New Nation
(http://www.americanhistoricalstaffordshire.com/pottery/printed-designs/patterns/boston-state-house-1-rogers)

There are five main pattern motifs present in this version. (there are numerous minor differences on others). They are: 1) Two framing trees, 2) Cows, 3) Sheep, 4) Boy with wheelbarrow, and 5) small figures. There are differences in the transfers on some pieces of this pattern by Rogers that show the presence or absence of one or more of these motifs. Examples of these variations are represented in Rogers' Boston State House #02 and #03 in this exhibit. At least 32 different forms with this popular view are known. Stubbs, Stevenson and Enoch Wood (whose version may also be seen in this exhibit) also produced a Boston State House pattern.

Several early scholars point to this Dobbins "sketch," dated 1804, that is at present in a private collection as the source material for Rogers' version of the Boston State House views. The only version available for study is a later reproduction created for a 1910 book by Mary Ayers, titled Early Days on Boston Common, seen here. Versions of this image are in the collection of the Bostonian Society, along with a pair of hand-colored children's drawings, one of which appears on the back of a piece of 18th century Italian sheet music. There are clear problems with the Dobbins' sketch as the source for Rogers' view. The cows are different, as the one standing cow is grazing with its head down. In addition to the grouped cows in the foreground, the boy and wheelbarrow in the middle ground, Dobbins' painting also contains a woman, child, and babe-in-arms in the extreme left foreground. This grouping does not appear in any other version of the image. Additionally, the Dobbins' watercolor has a different, and more distant, perspective on the Common and State House.

(Ref: NY9393B-NKC) See less