Canadian Pottery

by Janet Carlile

We often think of transfer printed designs on pottery as depicting countrified English scenery with cattle and churches or Oriental looking pastiches of learned scholars and figural symbolism. But did you ever expect to find Canadian scenery beneath your Sunday lunch?

Beginning in the second quarter of the 19th century English and Scottish pottery manufacturers produced a myriad of dinner, tea and washstand wares decorated with scenes of Canada in underglazed transferware. These topographical views appealed to an educated consumer's general interest in geography and the romance of distant lands. Many of these images were based on lithographs and paintings depicting everything from historic scenes such as the death of General Wolfe to polar bears on ice flows, steam transportation on the St Lawrence and snowshoeing to the city gates of Quebec city and the harbour of Montreal. Various and assorted Canadian scenes based on watercolours by artists like William Henry Bartlett, Paul Svinin and Robert Sproule produced on tours of North America adorned pieces destined for domestic use. Images found in lithographs and watercolours were translated into copper engravings, which were then placed on blank forms of earthenware pottery, glazed and then fired for permanent decoration. Manufacturers such as Enoch Wood, Josiah Wedgwood, Morley and Ridgway, Ashworth, and Davenport all produced earthenware items for both decorative and practical use. For the most part the scenes on pottery represented what was considered to be the essential sights early tourists might have taken in during a visit to what many called "British America". Views of the Rideau Canal at Bytown, Niagara, Kingston, Point Levi, and the Village of Cedars were common views depicted on these pieces. Destined for both the North American and British markets thousands of articles sporting Canadian scenes were produced.

Many of the images found in Bartlett's Canadian Scenery could be considered fairly accurate renditions of scenes of the day with some tidying up done to make the image "work" on paper. The so-called Indian Scene pictured here in plate form was produced by potters Podmore and Walker in the 1840's and 50's. The image not only tidied up the reality but it was further edited to suit the potters need.

A few so-called Canadian scenes are purely fanciful creations constructed by engravers who drew on a number of available sources to create the images. A pattern called Ontario Lake Scenery sports castles and exotic looking trees on the shores of Lake Ontario. Imagine coming to Canada in the 19th century and expecting to find such a place. Topographical scenes are not the only Canadian images found on pottery. Pottery showing beavers and maple leaves are made by an English firm by the name of. Furnival and Sons. The pattern is called Maple, dates to about 1884 and would have been destined solely for a Canadian market. It comes in a variety of colours including pink, brown, green and most rarely in blue. Made during a time when Canadian Nationalism was on the rise the beaver and the maple leaf had both been adopted as symbols by a country striving for a political identity. The rendition of the beaver would suggest that the engraver had never had the opportunity to see such an animal except perhaps in the guise of a gentleman's hat. Beaver's were trapped to extinction in Scotland by the beginning of the 19th century for the sake of the fashionable beaver felt hat so seeing such a creature in Britain in the flesh would have been almost an impossibility. The resulting creature bears little resemblance to the actual except perhaps for a flat tail.

Collecting our past in the form of pottery can be fun and a lifetime pursuit. For those of you convinced of a need to collect Canada's past in pottery form you will need both fairly deep pockets and a copy of Elizabeth Collard's The Potters' View of Canada. Prices for Canadian images on pottery range from about $50 for a small common plate to four figure prices for rarer patterns such as polar bears and steamboats. Exceptional pieces can cost in excess of $6000. Happy Hunting.