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Transferware from a British Perspective

“Continental Views” series

Number Thirty-Six of an Ongoing Series by Dick Henrywood

Having taken a short break following my last column, I decided to sort out my notes on one group of views of Europe made in the 1830s, only to discover that this series is not very well recorded.

“Continental Views” series (Machin & Potts)

A series of individually titled views of Europe made by Machin & Potts of Burslem. The series and individual titles appear along with the maker’s initials M&P in a printed cartouche mark, and one of two different marks referring to the firm’s patent process also sometimes appears. The central views appear within a simple frame and then one of a selection of at least three different sheet borders. The firm was responsible for patents concerning techniques for printing sheet transfers, a technique they used to print these borders. Examples appear in various colours and colour combinations. The series does not appear much in existing literature, hence the few illustration references below

At the time of writing the TCC database records only five different views in this series:

“Bay of Naples”

Wash jug (two different shapes)

“Mount Olympus”

Plate
Illustrations: FOB162 (plate, mark); Williams & Weber 2/159 (marks)
The plate illustrated in Williams & Weber is mistitled; it actually shows “Soracte”.

“Soracte”

Plate 10in
Illustrations: FOB163 (plate, mark); Williams & Weber 2/159-160 (plate, marks)
The plate illustrated in Williams & Weber is mistitled “Mount Olympus”.

“Tronsberg”

Plate 10.5in
Dessert dish 28cm

“Venice”

Washbowl

My own records turn out to be more extensive and I can add a further twelve views plus two which are unidentified so far. They are (with asterisks indicating titles or items which are unconfirmed):

“Bellagio, Lago di Como” *

Soup tureen
Cover (for soup tureen)

“Cape Colonna” *

Plate *

“Castle of Chillon” *

Platter *

“Cintra”

Comport (with four feet)

“Corfu” *

Egg scrambler
Illustrations: Neale 2/143 (egg scrambler, mark)

“Isola Bella”

Plate
Illustrations: Thom & Miller 106 & 174 (plate, marks)

“Klumm” *

Plate

“Lachin-y-Gair”

Plate 15cm

“Lago Maggiore”

Platter 39cm

“Lausanne” *

Sauce tureen
Stand (for sauce tureen)

“St. Pietro de Castello, Venice” *

Deep Dish
Platter

“Trent”

Platter 44.5cm

Unidentified Scene A

Platter

A seven-arch bridge crossing a river into a town dominated by a large castle, a viaduct in the left background.

Unidentified Scene B

Cover (for sauce tureen)
Sauceboat

A tower of some kind with a small boat in the foreground.

It can be seen that information about the series is very sketchy. It seems to be quite extensive, with at least twenty different scenes but a number of the titles are unconfirmed and the range of items on which they appear is woefully incomplete. If anyone has examples in their collection, perhaps they could dig them out and send in details, with images if at all possible. They should be sent to Dick Henrywood via the usual email address: henrywoodshighlights@transferwarecollectorsclub.org).

(Click on images for a larger view.)

Figure 1. Typical printed title mark incorporating maker’s initials M&P.	Figure 2. Printed “Machin & Potts’s Patent” mark (two variants exist).	Figure 3. Another, less common, printed “Machin & Potts’s Patent” mark.	Figure 4. Dinner plate printed with “Tronsberg” centre in black within one of the sheet borders printed in yellow (an uncommon colour).	Figure 5. Platter printed in brown with “Lago Maggiore” centre within a different sheet border.

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