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A Nineteenth-Century Lecture, Delivered in Color
Somebody's child ate off this plate and got a moral with every meal. The alphabet runs raised around the rim in relief, the center holds a black transfer of the hayfield — wagon, oxen, cottage on the hill, a man pitching a forkful up — and the whole scene has been hand-colored over the top in raspberry, green, yellow, and a deep cobalt. Look closely at the color and you'll see it lands slightly outside the lines. That's the tell, and it's the best part: somebody's hand, working fast at a bench, a hundred and seventy-odd years ago.
Around the top it reads MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES, and around the bottom, FRANKLIN'S PROVERBS. These are what collectors call ABC plates or alphabet wares — teaching plates given to children as rewards for good behavior, or handed to the ones who needed reminding. The Staffordshire potteries started making them in the late 1700s and the fashion ran hard through the 1800s. Franklin was the favorite source; roughly seventy-eight of his maxims turn up on this ware. Here's the wrinkle nobody mentions: this particular proverb isn't Franklin's. It was already in circulation in Tudor England, and being used figuratively by the 1670s, long before Poor Richard printed a word. He collected it. The potters put his name on it. Nineteenth-century marketing, alive and well.
It's unmarked on the reverse, which is standard for these — most were sold unsigned, and the alphabet rim and titled series do the identifying. English, Staffordshire district, [mid-19th century — I'd say c. 1840–1870 based on the molded rim and the hand-colored transfer].
At 5.75" it's a small plate — you'll also see this size called a toddy plate — and small is the point. Set it on a picture ledge above a child's bed where she can find the letters with her finger. Prop it on a little brass easel on a desk, next to the pencil cup. Or start a stairwell wall with it and add one every time you find another: a climb of small plates, all mottoes, all crooked color, is one of the best things you can do with a hallway.
Size: 5.75" in diameter.
Condition: Fine crazing across the entire surface, front and back, with light age discoloration in the lines. The hand-painted red rim line has worn thin and gone away entirely in a few short stretches. Scattered dark specks and glaze irregularities on the reverse, present from manufacture. Heavy crazing. Two small old chips on underside base of the plate. The transfer is crisp and fully legible throughout, and the color is bright. Please study every photo closely; they're part of the description.
Handpicked because the color on this one is unusually good — plenty of these turn up faded or scrubbed pale, and this one still has its raspberry and its blue. Carefully packed with love and sent on its way to you.
