July Feature Articles

‘Sawney’s Defence’: Anti-Catholicism, Consumption and Performance in 18th-Century Britain, by Danielle Thom

This article examines an 18th-century English transfer-printed quart mug, printed with an image derived from a popular anti-Catholic satire from about 1779. The article explores the relationship between object, image and audience, locating the mug within a nexus of Protestant masculine sociability that extended across the social hierarchy. Drawing upon existing forms of printed polemic, the mug shaped and was shaped by extra-Parliamentary political action, primarily in the form of toasting. This opened up possibilities for representation beyond those embedded in print culture, bringing a crucial performative element to an otherwise fixed point of polemical reference. Read this article.

South-East Asia: A Major Export Destination for Bristish Transferware, by Graeme Cruickshank

For most of the 19th century, millions upon millions of items of transfer-printed earthenware made in British factories were exported to virtually every corner of the planet. In terms of sheer bulk, probably the country which imported more than any other was the United States. There were a number of other ‘hot spots’ around the world, though only recently has it become clear that one of these regions was South-East Asia. Read the article.