Lafayette's Landing 6 5/8" Dark Blue Bread Plate

Circa 1820s: Certainly the most popular and lasting dark blue historical Staffordshire transferware pattern created for the American market by English brothers James and Ralph Clews is The Landing of General Lafayette At Castle Garden, New York, 16 August, 1824, which celebrates the starting point of the heroic French general's first visit to the United States since his historic leadership in the American Revolutionary War nearly fifty years earlier. The pattern was so loved by the American people that Clews manufactured it a bevy of shapes and sizes, and this handsome 6 5/8" bread plate has two marks on the back: the standard impressed "Clews Warranted Staffordshire" with crown circular mark and the scarce blue merchant stamp for "J. Greenfield's China Store No. 77 Pearl Street New York." John Greenfield was a china importer and is found listed at this address in the New York City Directories from 1825 to 1835. Because of the dates of Lafayette's 1824-1826 American tour, Greenfield would have most probably ordered this plate during the general's visit. Smaller plates are more difficult to find than their larger siblings, and this petite bread plate is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, or repairs and only very minimal expected shelf wear on the bottom.