Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 139, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Plate

ca. 1851 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, popularly known as the Great Exhibition, was held in London from 1 May to 11 October, 1851. It was an imperial spectacle in which the manufactures and raw materials of more than thirty British colonies and dependencies were displayed to demonstrate the commercial and artistic wealth of Britain’s colonial possessions and to re-invigorate British design. Key to the success of the Exhibition was Joseph Paxton’s revolutionary glass building; the Crystal Palace.

The building and displays drew over six million visitors to the Exhibition and generated a booming trade in souvenirs and commemorative items. This transfer-printed plate was produced as an affordable souvenir. It pictures an ‘interior view of the Crystal Palace’. The ‘exotic’ visitors in national dress in the foreground promote a vision of the Exhibition as a place where people and goods from around the world could be united under the banner of the British Empire.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain, transfer-printed in underglaze colours
Brief description
Plate, souvenir of Great Exhibition, porcelain transfer-printed in underglaze colours, F & R Pratt & Co., Fenton, ca. 1851, England.
Physical description
Plate, porcelain, the centre transfer-printed in underglaze colours with an interior view of the sculpture court of the 1851 Exhibition Building with figures in national dress in the foreground, the top inscribed “INTERIOR VIEW OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE”. The scene is divided from the border of the plate by a narrow band of scrolled ornament. The border painted green with a gilt edge.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 17.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
"INTERIOR VIEW OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE" (Applied to top of plate)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Eric Hervey
Object history
From a group of Crystal Palace memorabilia which belonged to Gerald Smedley Hervey, MBE.
Production
Same design also used by F & R Pratt & Co. to decorate pot-lids
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Association
Summary
The Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, popularly known as the Great Exhibition, was held in London from 1 May to 11 October, 1851. It was an imperial spectacle in which the manufactures and raw materials of more than thirty British colonies and dependencies were displayed to demonstrate the commercial and artistic wealth of Britain’s colonial possessions and to re-invigorate British design. Key to the success of the Exhibition was Joseph Paxton’s revolutionary glass building; the Crystal Palace.

The building and displays drew over six million visitors to the Exhibition and generated a booming trade in souvenirs and commemorative items. This transfer-printed plate was produced as an affordable souvenir. It pictures an ‘interior view of the Crystal Palace’. The ‘exotic’ visitors in national dress in the foreground promote a vision of the Exhibition as a place where people and goods from around the world could be united under the banner of the British Empire.
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.793-1969

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Record createdMay 24, 2006
Record URL
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