European Decorative Arts and Sculpture Pitcher with Landing of
General Lafayette at New York, 16 August 1824Made in Cobridge,
Staffordshire, England, Europe Made by James and Ralph Clews,
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, 1818 - 1834 Glazed
earthenware with transfer-printed decoration Currently not on
view 1940-16-171Bequest of R. Wistar Harvey, 1940 Various
methods of printing on a ceramic body by means of a transfer
were introduced in England in the 1750s. For printing under the
glaze, the earliest and most basic method consisted of applying
color—most notably cobalt blue—to an engraved copper plate. From
this engraved plate, the design was transferred to a thin paper
which was then pressed onto the unglazed surface of a ceramic
object before being softened with water and peeled away. The
decoration was hardened in a muffle kiln, then glazed and fired
again. The resulting decoration had the appearance of an
engraved print. This process of printing on ceramics allowed
standardization of decoration, per