Part of what I love about antique transfer-decorated children's mugs and plates (sometimes collectively referred to as nurseryware) is how strange they often feel, and sometimes really rather dark--which tends to feel to me much truer to the experience of childhood than teddy bears and unicorns! This plate, with raised ABC's around the perimeter, has a bit of that about it, with at least one of the children looking fairly traumatized by the approach of this man, who I think would be described as an organ grinder, with instrument around his neck that also functions as stage for a miniature theatre. Wild hair and strangely Intense faces all the way around, really, with, to my eye at least, a compelling sense of drama to the whole scene.
6 3/4" d. Charles Allerton and Sons, England, c. 1890s.
