Eight Designs for Decorated Cups and Two Designs for Plate Rims
![Eight Designs for Decorated Cups and Two Designs for Plate Rims by Alfred Henry Forrester [Alfred Crowquill]|Samuel Alcock & Company](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/dp/thumb/eight-designs-for-decorated-cups-and-two-designs-394794.webp)
Medium
Pen and ink, watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 16 3/4 x 11 7/16 in. (42.5 x 29 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1956
Accession Number
56.527(3)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, the height of Victorian Britain's industrial pottery boom, Alfred Henry Forresterbetter known by his pseudonym Alfred Crowquill—created this sheet of *Eight Designs for Decorated Cups and Two Designs for Plate Rims* around 1845–55. A prolific illustrator and caricaturist, Forrester collaborated with Samuel Alcock Company, a prominent Staffordshire ceramics firm renowned for affordable earthenware tableware. These precise drawings served as blueprints for mass-produced cups and plates, blending ornate floral motifs, geometric patterns, and delicate rim treatments that e...
About the Artist
Alfred Henry Forrester [Alfred Crowquill]|Samuel Alcock & Company · 1804–1872
Alfred Henry Forrester, widely known by his pseudonym Alfred Crowquill, was a versatile British illustrator, author, and caricaturist whose whimsical creations captured the Victorian imagination. Born on 10 September 1804 in London to public notary Robert Forrester, he shared a prolific collaboration with his elder brother, Charles Robert Forrester (1803–1850), who wrote under the name Hal Willis....