Object type
The design for this print plate lid of a bear pit is after a watercolour design by Jesse Austin, produced by both the Pratt and Mayer factories (the two main specialists in this line of work). The bear pit design is repeated four times on the plates perhaps indicating the commercial success of the subject. Bear scenes were popular for pots of hair products made from bear grease. There are two main variations of this design, this one featuring a building with a glazed domed roof in the background on the left. This set of copper plates and a pot lid acquired by the museum (C.37:1 & 2-2012) have the design with the domed structure, and are probably therefore from the Mayer factory, as pulls with this feature are in a list of Mayer designs (Mortimer, Pot-Lids, 2003, p.35). The other design 'Lady reading book' is also in the list of pulls for the Mayer factory and differs from the Pratt factory version as only half the background is covered in wallpaper.

Materials & Making
Such decoration was a speciality of pot lid printers, probably because underglaze polychrome transfer- printing was a difficult and labour intensive technique, and one best confined to a small area (though very much smaller quantities of tablewares and plaques were also made). The firm of F.&R. Pratt & Co. of Lane Delph, Fenton, are thought to have been the earliest exponents of full underglaze colour-printing, though Mayers were quick to follow. An image was produced by engraving at least four different copper printing- plates, one to load with black ink, and the others with a single colour each. The coloured ink from the engraved grooves on the first plate was pressed onto dampened potter's tissue paper, which was in turn applied to the unglazed earthenware and rubbed on with a flannel boss. The tissue was floated off in water, leaving the oily ink on the pottery. After 24 hours' drying time, the next colour was applied on top, and so on, finishing with black or brown, which when accurately aligned, completed the image. It was only in the 1840s that suitable printing inks and paper were developed for this process.

People
Thomas, Joseph and John Mayer of Dale Hall Pottery, Longport, Burslem, were brothers from a famous Staffordshire family of master potters whose business was established in the 1780s. The Mayer brothers were awarded a prize medal at the Great Exhibition where their stand displayed various designs for meat pots, printed in underglaze colours. They eventually became the second largest manufacturer of colour transfer-printed lids, but made other useful goods as well, and had a thriving export trade with America.