City of Albany, State of New York
   
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Pattern Category: Places Series: Shell Border, Circular Center Object Type: Dinner and Dessert Wares Dimensions:
Description: This view only appears on this 10 inch plate, a 10 inch soup and a bowl. Enoch Wood's shell border series is divided between regular and irregular, the latter because the shells invade into the scene giving a sort of grotto effect. Some call the regular border, circular center. While the French may have established a trading post here as early as 1540 the first Dutch Walloon settlers arrived in 1624. Then known as Beverwyck, the settlement benefitted from its location on the Hudson just below the mouth of the Mohawk and from the prosperity of the famous patroonship of Rensselaerwyck in the same area. The town was renamed Albany when it was transferred to the English in 1644 and became state capital in 1797. The view was taken from a Water Color by Paul Svinin, which was published in 1818. It was a center of the Anti-Rent War when the heirs of the last patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, tried to collect past due rents from his farmers in 1839 |
