Collections

British Columbia Provincial Museum, Modern History Division, Ceramics Collection

R. G. Patterson
British Columbia Provincial Museum

1 When the Modern History Division of the British Columbia Provincial Museum was set up in late 1967, the core of the division's collections were items inherited from the Provincial Archives of British Columbia. Among these were a number of earthenware pitchers and crocks, royalty commemoratives, and several pieces of chinaware marked with the Hudson's Bay Company coat of arms. In 1971 the division purchased the entire collection of a private museum (the Watson Collection, accession numbers 971.61.1- ) which included a number of pieces of china-ware and pottery. Since that period, this division has had a policy of collecting only British Columbia manufactured goods. No staff member has yet seriously researched and acquired the province's manufactured pottery or ceramics. As a consequence, the division's collection consists of miscellaneous donations and purchases with several interesting individual pieces, illustrated here.

Figs. 1 and 2. Jugs commemorating the coronation of King William Ⅳ and Queen Adelaide on 8 September 1851. An example of transfer-printed ware.
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(Photo: British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.)
Fig. 3. Two-tiered bone china compote with applied Hudson's Bay Company crest. Manufactured by W.T. Copeland and Sons, England, ca. 1847-90.
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(Photo: British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.)
Fig. 4. Blue and White C.P.R. luncheon plate, manufactured by Alfred Meakin Limited, England, ca. 1914-20.
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(Photo: British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.)
Fig. 5. Wheel-thrown stoneware wine goblet manufactured by B. Young, Fort St. John, British Columbia, ca. 1977.
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(Photo: British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.)