States Border Series - Clews

The States Border Series is also known as The States Series, due to the states' names printed on the decorative ribbon found in the border.  Another name given this series is the America and Independence Series. Made for export to the American Market, the design for this series incorporates a number of patriotic elements which include Lady Justice, who appears on the left holding a medallion with a portrait of George Washington, and Lady Liberty, who appears on the right. A Masonic symbol is also included in the design. Ironically, all of the landscape scenes printed in the center of each pattern are British.  

A numbering system for these patterns was developed by David and Linda Arman in their 1974 book titled Historical Staffordshire: An Illustrated Check-List.  The numbers begin with the number 2, because the Armans assigned number 1 to a completely different pattern named Landing of La Fayette.  The States Border Series has 14 different center views which the authors numbered 2-15. The Armans also used lengthy names to describe the center scene.