Decorative English Luster Maritime Pottery Plaque-Titled "Agamemnon"

Details

Description

A Pink Lustre Maritime Plaque, “Agamemnon”
Sunderland type, twentieth century

Of rectangular form, transfer-printed in black with a three-masted man-of-war … Read more A Pink Lustre Maritime Plaque, “Agamemnon”
Sunderland type, twentieth century

Of rectangular form, transfer-printed in black with a three-masted man-of-war under a full press of sail, ensigns streaming from each masthead and gulls wheeling above, the vessel named “Agamemnon” in flowing script along the lower edge. The scene is reserved upon a pink lustre ground softly sponged with white cloud-reserves and framed by a boldly scalloped manganese-brown lustre border, the upper edge pierced with two holes for hanging.

Dimensions:
8 inches (20.3 cm) high,
9 inches (22.9 cm) wide
1 inch (2.5 cm) deep.

Historical Context
Pink lustre wares of this kind continue one of the most enduring decorative traditions of the North-East of England, where the potteries of Sunderland and Tyneside perfected the marriage of a black transfer print with a shimmering pink lustre ground throughout the nineteenth century. Maritime subjects — ships in full sail, the Wearmouth Bridge, sailors’ farewells and patriotic verses — were favourites of the genre, and their cheerful character has kept them in demand among collectors of nautical and folk material ever since.

This plaque is a twentieth-century piece made in that well-loved Sunderland manner. Its central image of a fully rigged ship derives from a mid-nineteenth-century engraving popularised by the Illustrated London News — a composition that in fact portrayed the celebrated Australian clipper Marco Polo, and which the Sunderland potteries had long pressed into service as a generic man-of-war. Here it is inscribed “Agamemnon,” a name that carries one of the great romances of the Victorian age: HMS Agamemnon, the screw-propelled ship of the line launched in 1852, won lasting fame as one of the two vessels that laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, joining Europe and America in an instant for the first time in history.

Decorative rather than antique, the plaque offers the bold graphic appeal and warm lustre glow that have made Sunderland-style maritime wares so collectable, together with the enduring story of the ship that helped shrink the Atlantic. It makes a handsome and characterful wall piece for any nautical or English pottery interior.

(Ref: NY10859-iam) See less