SCHOOL AND TRANSFERWARE

Child's mug 2.41 inch by 2.62 inch, Going To School, ca. 1830

Palo Alto children have returned to school this week, so I thought I would share some of the transferware patterns that have school as a subject.  Here are a few that illustrate going to school and coming home.

Child's 5 inch plate Going To School (hard to see the writing at the bottom of the print), ca. 1830 

Child's plate, 7.12 inches. The pattern is part of a series copied from The School-boy by William Upton (Darton, 1820).  The entire text reads: "GOING TO SCHOOL/The Satchel on his back you see,/The first in School the last to flee,/And says he ne'er a Truant be/THE SCHOOL-BOY!" ca. 1830

Thomas Patterson & Co. (1827-1847) child's plate, 7.75 inches. Going to School is part of a series of children's plates that depicts children's activities.

Thomas Patterson & Co. (1827-1847) child's plate, 7.75 inches Returned From School/ This is a companion plate to Going To School/The boy and his dog definitely look happier!

Child's plate, 7.12 inches He Returns from The School-Boy series (see above)

Coming Out Of School 7.12 inch child's plate

Some of the patterns were intended to be rewards for doing well in school.

Present for going to School 3 inch child's mug, ca. 1820

For Improvement at School 5.12 inch child's plate with a shell edge, ca. 1820

Some showed children playing school with their dolls and others showed the nursery or infant school.

Darning egg, Our Early Days, shows a girl teaching the alphabet to her dolls

The School 7.75 inch plate, ca. 1820

Source print for The School plate above.  It is an illustration from a book titled The Governess by William Upton, 1812. Although all of the children appear to be girls, 19th century boys this young would have had long hair and worn dresses. 

Twenty-first century school children and their teachers