Old Britain Castles Ceramic Plate, Johnson Brothers (1930)
EMPIRE LINES24 Mar 2022

Old Britain Castles Ceramic Plate, Johnson Brothers (1930)

Dr. Jeanne Morgan Zarucchi fires up legacies of British colonialism in contemporary American consumption, through Johnson Brothers' Old Britain Castles Ceramic Plate, produced from 1930.

Manufactured for export to America, Old Britain Castles promised to connect consumers with their 18th century colonial origins. Produced by the British firm Johnson Brothers from 1930, designers used engravings of Blarney Castle in Ireland to target new immigrants, capitalising on class dynamics after the American Revolution. Miscalculated marketing strategies may have backfired, but the pattern remained in production for 84 years. Antiquated by design, these imagined heirlooms challenge the idea of the 'Roaring Twenties', revealing how many Americans longed to return to a time of perceived tradition, stability, and values. With their combination of fine art and function, they also speak to the neoimperial business practices of Staffordshire's Wedgwood pottery ever since.

PRESENTER: Dr. Jeanne Morgan Zarucchi, Professor of Art History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is the author of The Material Culture of Tableware: Staffordshire Pottery and American Values.

ART: Old Britain Castles Ceramic Plate, Johnson Brothers (1930).

IMAGE: 'Blarney Castle in 1792, Johnson Bros'.

SOUNDS: sawsquarenoise.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.


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