RERAMIC STUDIO 
2*1 
ware, English as well as American views, was almost exclu- 
sively made for the American market, and the Staffordshire 
manufacturers were naturally anxious to make it as attractive 
to the American public and as salable as possible. In most 
cases the American flag has probably no other significance. 
Not only is it found on many views of ships in foreign ports 
(View of Liverpool, View of Dublin, Yarmouth, Christiana- 
burg, Gold Coast of Africa, etc., shell border, by Wood), but 
on views in which the presence of an American ship seems 
impossible, for instance, the York Minster plate with fruit and 
flower border, which will be illustrated in one of our next 
issues. A steamboat is shown in the foreground flying the 
American flag. What could an American steamboat be doing 
on a small inland river, in the center of Northern England, far 
from the coast? And how shall we explain the flags on the lot 
of small racing boats shown on the Wood piece called " East 
Cowes, Isle of Wight," long before Americans thought of 
challenging for the cup. No less strange is the flag in the 
view reproduced on cover of February OLD China. "A ship 
of the Line in the Downs." If it was not for this flag nobody 
would hesitate to interpret the expression " Ship of the Line" 
as applying to an English war-ship. But even if the flag 
stamps this war-ship as American, is this a reason to place 
the view in the American list? The Downs are in England 
and the view is English, whatever the nationality of the ship. 
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Leeds Tea Pot, bj 
irtesy of Arthur True & (Jo., New York. 
THE FITI/EON, 1814 THE CHAXCELI.OE WVINOSION, 1815 
Reconstructed from original documents. 
From " Past and Present of Steam Navigation on Long Island Sound," by Henry 
Whittemore, author of "Historv of Steam Navigation in America/' and 
other historical works. 
In the absence of marks, and in view of the inaccuracy of 
drawings used by old English potters, it is a hopeless task to 
try to give names to all views of this kind. It is more than 
probable that in most cases no special view was intended. 
Ships, steamboats, railroads were used for decorative pur- 
poses ; they had of course the general features of ships, steam- 
boats and railroads of the time, and these features were prob- 
ably made as American as possible, but there does not seem 
to be the slightest reason to believe that special well known 
boats or trains were meant. If such had been the case, we 
would find more of these views marked. In dark blue the 
B. & O. R. R. of Wood remains an exception to the rule and 
is marked, probably because it was exceptionally intended to 
be a special view ; in light blue the Schenectady & Albany 
R. R. illustrated on our cover is another exception. 
All these unmarked views have their historical interest, 
and their place in a collection, whether American or English. 
But they ought to be listed apart as general views of early 
steamboats, ships and railroads, until marks are positively 
found to identify them. Chances are that marks will never be 
found for most of them. In this special list it would seem 
wise to include the three so-called Cadmus plates with shell 
border by Wood. It is claimed that one of these plates has 
been found marked, but to our knowledge no positive proof 
of the fact has been produced so far. 
TWO ODD TEA POTS 
In connection with the preceding article, the reproduction 
of these teapots with views of old boats may prove interesting. 
The first illustration is of a very fine Leeds tea pot, which 
we reproduce by courtesy of Arthur True & Co. of New 
York, the owners, who think it represents the Fulton 
Steamboat. Anyway, the steamboat flies the American flag, 
and on this ware which was not specially made for the Ameri- 
can market, and on which American subjects are only occa- 
sionally found, the presence of the flag may have more signifi- 
cance than it has on the dark blue Staffordshire. It will be 
noticed that what appears to be a second mast is in reality 
the smokestack, judging from the volume of smoke which 
pours out of its top. So that the boat has only one mast, 
and has at least this exceptional feature of the Fulton. The 
tea pot shows unquestionably all the characteristics of the 
Leeds paste, quite different from the Liverpool and Stafford- 
shire pastes, but who can say positively what special boat, if 
any, the view was intended to represent? 
The Chinaman who decorated the Lowestoft tea pot, our 
second illustration, did probably his best to give a reproduc- 
tion of an American ship, but we will leave to some imagina- 
tive collectors the task of naming the ship. The only thing 
which is easily recognized is the American flag. It is a fine 
specimen of so called Lowestoft, one of the many interesting 
pieces in a collection of over 1400 tea pots. 
Ohinese Lowestoft Tea Pot. from the Collection of Mrs. H. F. Brownell, 
Providence, R. I. 
