Put a Picture On It...The Odd World of Antique Souvenir China and Pottery

 

Balanced Rock Porcelain Slipper

 I have decided the world of vintage is more like a Universe of Vintage with untold galaxies of things people love. There is so much to be curious about Out There, I feel like an explorer of the cosmos every time I pick something up and wonder about why and how it came to be.

I am always to drawn to strange juxtapositions in old things, like a porcelain shoe with a picture of Balanced Rock printed on it or a tiny fragile tea cup that has a scene of Niagara falls on it—and ladies carrying parasols.  Why porcelain? Who collected these things and when?

Niagara Falls Tea Cup

Well…souvenir pottery has a long and storied history it turns out.  Before place-specific souvenir ware became the next hot thing, Josiah Wedgwood was producing dishes with views on them; places people would never most likely visit but that suited the romantic nature of the times. Dashing horses and carriages, soporific mill scenes, great English houses, you name it, and Josiah was all over it in the eighteenth century.

Other potters figured out this market and Inexpensive china souvenirs have been an important part of ceramics importers business since the nineteenth century.  The beginnings were what we now call "Historical Staffordshire,” pictorial blue and white ceramics rimmed in flower or fruit borders which was made specifically for export in the Staffordshire pottery producing region of England beginning in the 1820s and decorated with scenes of American communities and historical figures as well as dreamy romantic English scenes. These pieces are gorgeous and you can still find them, although they can be very spendy to acquire. The glazes on the early ware are cobalt blue because at the time that was the only glaze that could stand up to the high fire glost ovens. As technology advanced so did the ability to produce other colors and even full color in the next few years. 

Exquisite historical Staffordshire plate

The most awe inspiring souvenir china ever made has to be the “Frog Service”, a set of china with 50 complete place settings and all the serving dishes made for Catherine the Great. 1222 views of  British landscapes were painted on the dishes for Catherine’s summer place, which was situated in a marshy area filled with frogs, hence the frog on each piece of the china service.

A platter from the Frog Service of Catherine the Great

On a much smaller scale, Americans making the Grand Tour of Europe, those with money to burn in the 18th and 19th century often took home pieces of pottery and china with views on them as souvenirs. Souvenir is French for “token of remembrance”, and was first recorded in writing in that sense in 1773. 

Grand tour memento of London

 Pretty soon, smart merchants figured out they could brand and sell their own attractions in the USA, printing ceramics with things as esoteric as colleges, balancing rocks and hotels, along with views of the wonders of nature.

Glass slippers from Salt Lake City and Ontario,Canada.

The market was ready made as Americans were entering the age of affordable leisure tourism and intense civic pride. Leisure travel thanks to the railroads and civic pride because we were a brash young country.  Families were now able to go the mountains for a vacation or the seaside for the weekend and of course they wanted a souvenir to remember the event.  The Golden Age of souvenir pottery and china in America kicked off and ran from the 1890s to the 1930s.

American pride at its best, 1905, a Lewis and Clark Centennial Plate.

With the advent of World War II, production of this type of souvenir of hard paste porcelain, usually the kind you can almost see through, ceased. After the war,  the market was flooded with cheap Japanese made souvenirs, mostly plates and cups that were not the same level of quality and fit better into the kitsch niche. Everybody had a grandma with a few souvenir plates on the wall but not the same kind of doo dads available before World War II which primarily came from Germany, with some English and French contributions.

This is a Wheelock import from Germany, one of the top two names found on imported hard paste porcelain.This desirable plate is a view of the US Courthouse and Post Office in Seattle, Washington.

Merchants in the late 19th and early 20th century wanting to extract every dollar from the tourist visitor  and city fathers and mothers, were called on by traveling salesmen from china importers to provide them with custom-made pictorial ceramics of their hotel or balanced rock or other Point of Interest.

Little known things like the McKinley Stump where Roosevelt stood appeared on souvenir ware. You have to wonder what the market was for this kind of piece from a small Washington town.

Shapes were standard and you will often see the same little vase or shoe shape but any image or saying could have been transfer-printed from a decal made from a copper or steel engraving to make the piece unique. Most of the views used were lifted from postcards, probably what was in the racks when the salesman made the sale.

I love this one, the grand opening  of Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington before Mt Rainier got renamed from its original Mt Tacoma moniker.

The artist making the engraving never saw the original which resulted in some confusing mistakes from time to time. From order to delivery, souvenir china Production usually took a year.

Another instance of civic pride, the Bastion at Nanaimo, British Columbia

Many of these fun collectibles are still around and prices run the gamut from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars depending on what they are and what the market is that is looking for them.

These say the State Capitol in Olympia, but that moved down the street a long time ago. The gorgeous building still stands as the headquarters of  the Superintendent of Public Instruction, making these salt and peppers rare and desirable.

Great State of Washington Souvenir Plate, turn of the century.

Interestingly enough, the first limited edition collector’s plate came from Bing and Grondahl in 1895 when Harald Bing instructed his artisans to smash the mould for their Christmas Plate, Behind the Frozen Window. He believed, that limiting the availability of the plate would make it more desirable.  He was right and Bing and Grondahl are still making desirable limited edition plates.

The very first collectible souvenir limited edition plate from 1895.

The pieces in this blog entry are primarily from Washington state (where I live) and several of them are actually available at the Finders Keepers antique mall in Olympia. As for me, I'm keeping Niagara falls with its tiny ladies and parasols and the miniature Maid of the Mist. Who knows what other odd and lovely wonders are waiting for me to discover in the wild?