From June 1, 2024 till August 20, 2024 exhibition “The Charm of Blue and White. British transferware in Latvian museums and private collections, 18th–21st centuries” will be on display at The Great Exhibition Hall in The Art Museum RIGA BOURSE.
The exhibition provides an insight into the broad, original and visually attractive field of applied decorative art, which the British themselves call English transfer-printed pottery or in an abbreviated form – as English transferware.
The items that can be viewed at the exhibition have something in common in that they have been created from ceramics and that the pattern technique has been used for their decoration – the vessels have been decorated with printed pattern that has been mechanically transferred onto the surfaces of vessels using engraving or other graphics techniques.
This technology, which was already widely used in the late 18th century in England for decorating ceramics, allowed for the creation of magnificent, visually effective vessels in an incomparably faster and much cheaper way than previously. The manufacture of English ceramics was thus facilitated to a previously unseen extent. In the 19th century, millions of examples of transfer-ware were manufactured in the British Isles by English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland companies, and were exported to all continents. The imported products also made manufacturers in other countries contemplate the use of similar technology, which facilitated the rapid development of the local ceramic fields in many countries, including Latvia.
It has been estimated that the total number of patterns used historically in the decoration of vessels by British manufacturers, exceeds 18,000. The diversity of these is quite unbelievable – starting from motifs acquired from Chinese porcelain and the Ancient World, and finishing with romantic landscapes, elegant pastoral scenes, flower and plant compositions, portrayals of animals and birds, as well as abstract geometric ornaments.
Transfer-ware has already found its place in the collections of the most important world museums and has become a passion for many collectors. As a result, rich collections of such items have been created with serious research being undertaken on them. It is true that for a long time, especially outside of Great Britain, transfer-ware was valued much lower than hand painted porcelain. This did not take into account the fact that printed motifs had been frequently created by outstanding artists of their time. This attitude has changed in the past half-century though, and nowadays most specialists recognize that, as in the evaluation of printed Rembrandt etchings, the number of copies does not, in any way, reduce the aesthetic qualities of a specific work.
The private collections of Dainis Bruģis and Agrita Tipāne form the core of the exhibition, which is supplemented by several hundred items from 22 different Latvian museums and National Library of Latvia in total. The Latvian National Museum of Art and the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation are represented with a greater number of exhibits. A significant contribution to the exhibition has, however, been provided by other museums in Latvia as well, and includes the Cēsis History and Art Museum, which held the first exhibition dedicated to this theme in 2021–2022. The exhibition’s research catalogue, which is currently the only publication in Latvia dedicated to the broader topic of English transfer-ware, also came out in 2022, published by the Cēsis Museum.
The exhibition has been created with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation.
We express our gratitude for their collaboration in the creation of the exhibition to:
The museums that have been represented, as well as to the library: Alūksne Museum
Bauska Museum, Cēsis History and Art Museum, Gulbene Municipality History and Art Museum, Jelgava History and Art Museum of Ģederts Eliass, Turaida Museum Reserve, Latvian Open-Air Ethnographic Museum, Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvian National Library, Liepāja Museum, Limbaži Museum, Rīga Art Nouveau Centre, Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History, Piebalga Museum Association Orisāre, Rīga Porcelain Museum, Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, Rundāle Palace Museum, Smiltene County Museum, Talsi District Museum, Tukums Museum, Valmiera Museum, Ventspils Museum
Private collectors: Dainis Bruģis, Agrita Tipāne
Private individuals: Gunda Dukure, Aigars Grīnbergs, Indra Liepa and Liesma Markova.
The Charm of Blue and White. British transferware in Latvian museums and private collections, 18th–21st centuries
June 1, 2024 – August 20, 2024
Art Museum RIGA BOURSE / Great Exhibition Hall, 1st floor
Doma laukums 6, Riga, Latvia