Paul Jones

In December I wrote that if the owner of the plaques below got in touch, it would make my Christmas. Sadly they didn't.

In case you've been wondering who Paul Jones might have been (the painted title of the right plaque above), take a look at this page on Wikipedia.  He was the 'first naval hero of the American Revolutionary War'.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the British caricatured him as a pirate (see below).

Recently the following pair of plaques came up at auction.  Congratulations to their new owner, I'm green with envy.

The plaques are of an unusually large size (c 215 x 238 mm).  I've blogged about this plaque form previously, but as yet got no closer to identifying the pottery. Richard Cobden appears on these larger plaques (below left), and also on the smaller rectangular plaques I've attributed to Scott (below centre).  The verses are very distinctively engraved, and (unusually) have the bible reference at the top.  The verses appear on later plaques with the John Carr & Sons impress.  Cobden also appears on later Carr-attributed items (below right).

Take a look at the bowl below, which has the 'Paul Jones' transfer.  The bowl was recently in John Howard's stock (now sold).  On the other side of the bowl is the 'Pensioner's Yarn' transfer, which as far as I know, is peculiar to Scott.

The obvious thought is that Scott made these larger sized plaques (c1850), and that the transfer plates with the religious verses and Richard Cobden later found their way to Carr (c1860). The 'Paul Jones' transfer doesn't appear on Carr items as far as I know.

Richard Cobden fell from public grace in the 1850s for opposing the Crimean War. This might explain why Scott would relinquish the Cobden transfer plate. But why would he allow the verse transfer plate to fall into the hands of a competitor?  What's more, these verses with the biblical reference at the top don't appear on any of the other plaque forms I've attributed to Scott. Perhaps someone at Scott's left Sunderland to work in North Shields, and took a couple of transfer plates with him. It rankles with me that we may never know!

P.S.

The verses below accompany the Richard Cobden transfer (the left transfer is on the reverse of the jug above). They are, therefore, likely on the same transfer plate.  The blue corners are a feature associated with Scott.  See the May peace and plenty page for more examples.