Winter View Of Pittsfield Dark Blue Salad Plate

Circa 1827-1834: One of brothers James and Ralph Clews' most popular transferware patterns made for the American market is Winter View in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In Part 1 of Sam Laidacker's two volume Anglo-American China published in 1954, Laidacker catalogues a whopping 21 different shapes decorated with the Winter View of Pittsfield pattern, including the 8" salad plate offered here. In Pictures of Early New York on Dark Blue Staffordshire Pottery first published in 1899 and then reissued by Dover Publications in 1974, author R.T. Haines Halsey includes a bevy of great information about this classic view. On pages 233 and 234, Halsey explains that "the most conspicuous of the buildings which appear on this plate is the First Congregational Church," which "was erected in 1793." He also tells us that another building pictured in this scene is the First Baptist Church, which is important because it "was finished in 1827," dating the possible period of the pattern's manufacture from 1827 until 1834, when the Clews partnership was dissolved. Also of historic note in this transfer is the infamous Pittsfield Elm, whose "elliptical fence enclosing part of the common," as Halsey notes on page 235, "was put up in 1820 for the purpose of carefully guarding this tree." The beautiful old elm would later be struck by lightning and finally cut down by Pittsfield's residents in 1861. This salad plate is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, or repairs and has only typical very minor short utensil marks on the front and expect light shelf wear on the reverse.