A somewhat forbidding castellated fortress commands a hillside in Wales, clearly built for defense, not aristocratic pleasure. Its days of war and glory seem long past, however. The Welch landscape it overlooks seems peaceful and lush The figures we see enjoying the countryside, not planning to lay siege to the fortress.

The real punch of this platter's design, however, lies between the scrolled frame of the landscape and the stiff leaf border at the platter edge. Hall's designer has left polite rococo traditions behind to surround his scene with an overscale wreath of fruit and specimen blossoms--unruly in its celebration of plenty and almost sensual lushness. The effect is enhanced by the nature of dark blue transfer printing in which the rounded volume of the fruit recedes into the rich blue background, the highlights left in bright unprinted white.

Scenic patterns of this time period are often referred to as "series" (like "Select Views") and identified by the border designs they share. We see with the Hall's series how the surrounds  have swelled with importance since the very earliest transfer patterns with their comparatively perfunctory adaptations of Chinese porcelain borders.