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Josiah Wedgwood & Sons

Tobacco Growing Plate

Maker

Josiah Wedgwood &amp
Sons (English), manufacturer

Title

Tobacco Growing Plate
from the series, New England Industries

Year

1949-1952

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

earthenware

Geography

Place Made: England

Dimensions

2.2 cm (7/8 inches) (height)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Marks: The verso has a title and description of the image and has the legend, "TOBACCO GROWING/ In the Connecticut valley a tobacco crop unexcelled for quality and flavour has been developed over the years. Caring for the frail young plants, guarding the growing leaf, keeping watch in the curing barns, Connecticut farmers give hostage to the variations of New England earth and climate, as tenderly they bring forth another harvest of the land.”

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2004.89.2

Type

Exhibition History

Take Care
Aug 20, 2022 – Mar 22, 2023

Label copy

This plate was made in England as part of a series that depicted New England industries. Tobacco was already being grown by Indigenous communities in New England when European settlers first arrived. More than 300 years later, designer Clare Leighton created this series to show the power of the land and, as an objection to industrialization, trades that were being phased out. Leighton participated in tobacco harvesting in Connecticut to learn about this process, bringing that new understanding back to her practice. While tobacco farming has diminished greatly in New England in the last decade, the industry is still alive today.

–Marny Kindness, exhibitions manager

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Tombstone

Josiah Wedgwood & Sons (English), manufacturer
Clare Leighton (American, 1898-1989
b. in London, UK), designer
Tobacco Growing Plate; from the series, New England Industries, 1949-1952
Earthenware with glaze and transfer print
2.2 cm (7/8 inches) (height)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 2004.89.2

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