The Arkansas News was a newspaper produced for schoolchildren to enliven
the study of Arkansas History. We wrote articles based on historical
reality, but they were fictional. Unfortunately, some have been picked up
by internet sources and they are now mistaken for real history. I have
found one of my own articles in a genealogy website.
Ann M. Early
At 08:53 PM 3/15/2006, you wrote:
>My friend was taping a "flow blue" platter of Davenport to get it's
>size and there was an interesting mark "Henderson & Gaines 45 Canal
>St., New Orleans" on it along with the "Persian Birds" pattern from
>1844 and the anchor stamp of the Davenport firm. I plugged it into
>Google, the New Orleans listing and found this listing that helps
>explain some of the "Queensware" from the time of its use, a newspaper
>article from then:
>
>Block & Son Offers Variety of Goods To People All Over Hempstead County
>
>WASHINGTON - Abraham Block stood in his store here on this October day
>of 1844. He looked out through the front windows across Frankim Street
>to the courthouse. That two-story building was nine years old, but he
>remembered that before the new courthouse was built, the grand jury
>had to meet in a room in Block's own store.
>
>There wasn't much going on at the courthouse today, but he knew that
>soon circuit court was going to begin and that would bring in
>customers from all over Hempstead County. Everybody likes a good
>trial. And when people came to town for court, they would also bring
>their money and shop in Washington stores for supplies.
>
>In his hand Block held the copy for his next advertisement in the
>Washington Telegraph:
>
>"NEW GOODS! The undersigned is now receiving and opening at the old
>stand of Block & Son, a large and well selected stock of goods,
>consisting in part of the following: Dry Goods, Groceries, Queensware,
>Hardware, Hats, Boots, Shoes, Clothing, Saddlery, Stationery, Tinware,
>&c, &c."
>
>Block knew that people appreciated his wide variety of goods for sale.
>He and his wife Fannie had always felt that a good business should be
>ready to provide what customers needed. That is why they had opened
>the tannery and the sawmill, and why he served as a commission agent
>for cotton dealers in New Orleans.
>
>It was through his New Orleans connections that he had developed a
>satisfying relationship with the firm of Henderson and Gaines of 45
>Canal Street The Block family store sold good quality tableware to the
>planters and farmers and working people of the Red River Valley. It
>was not the expensive dishes, since anyone who could afford the best
>French or English china went straight to New Orleans or New York
>anyway.
>
>The Blocks wanted to give their customers dishes they could afford,
>"Queensware," as it was called. Henderson
>and Gaines provided Block with the right dishes, because the New
>Orleans firm had a direct connection to an English factory, the
>Davenport firm of Longport in Staffordshire.
>
>Davenport produced brightly printed tea sets and coffee sets. light
>blue scenic patterns sold well, and so did the wide
>range of printed patterns in purples, greens, reds, and even the
>old-fashioned dark blues. The painted and dark-brown mocha wares were
>a little cheaper but still looked good. And all of these looked good
>on the Blocks' own table, too.
>
>The storeowner was impressed and pleased that Davenport even went to
>the trouble of marking their own products with the additional mark of
>Henderson and Gaines. When those dishes sold in Block's store, the
>customer could see the lineage of these fine wares, straight from
>England to New Orleans to Block & Son. And the customer learned once
>again of the integrity and pride of the Blocks. The claim that ended
>his newest advertisement was no idle boast:
>
>"The above articles have been selected with great care, and embrace a
>large variety of new and splendid goods,
>which the public are respectfully invited to call and examine before
>purchasing elsewhere."
>
>- "The Arkansas News" (c) Old State House - Arkansas Commemorative Commission
>Edition of April 1996 p. 2, The Arkansas News is published
>periodically by the Old State House Museum. Old State House, 300 West
>Markham, little Rock, Arkansas 72201, ISSN 0882-973X
|