G.W. Turner & Sons, after William Henry Bartlett

British; English, active 1873-1895

Soup tureen, c. 1883

Ironstone china

21 (ht) x 34 (wi) x 21 (dp) cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Gift of the Canadian Antique Dealers Association

G-91-170 ab

Categories:

Ceramic, Decorative Arts Ceramic

By the mid-nineteenth century, global travel was easier because land and sea transportation were more accessible and comfortable. Canada became one of the newest travel destinations. Pottery manufacturers enhanced the visual travelogue by bringing geography to tables, decorating dinnerware with scenes taken from engravings illustrating popular travel books. The WAG’s soup tureen is one of the rarest examples to use printed imagery from William Henry Bartlett’s book, Canadian Scenery (1842), as it is decorated with not just one but eight views of the Canadian landscape. At least twelve Staffordshire potteries worked with scenes taken from Bartlett’s engravings. The manufacturer of this particular work, G.W. Turner & Sons, was a modest enterprise whose market for such wares were the local and colonial consumers.