Seven Designs for Decorated Plates
![Seven Designs for Decorated Plates by Samuel Alcock & Company|Alfred Henry Forrester [Alfred Crowquill]](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/dp/thumb/seven-designs-for-decorated-plates-394827.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(27)
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, during Britain's Victorian era, the ceramics industry flourished thanks to the Industrial Revolution, ornate tableware accessible to the growing middle class. *Seven Designs for Decorated Plates* (1845–55), by Samuel Alcock & Company in collaboration with illustrator Alfred Henry Forrester (known Alfred Crowquill), exemplifies this vibrant period. Alcock's Staffordshire pottery firm was renowned for producing affordable earthenware plates using transfer-printing techniques, often embellished with hand-painted details. Forrester, a celebrated caricaturist and Punch maga...
About the Artist
Samuel Alcock & Company|Alfred Henry Forrester [Alfred Crowquill] (British|British) · 1828 |1804 –1859 |1872
British, active ca. 1828–59|British, London 1804–1872 London