Bi-color printing offered transferware potters a number of different design options such as the familiar border-versus-center contrast or the inclusion of color highlights within a printed image. Ridgway's "Etruscan Festoon" pattern represents a third strategy--the overlay of a contrasting layer of ornament over a printed ground.

Swags of floral garland in black divide and accent a monochromatic field of floral nosegays against a solid light blue background. For this luncheon size plate, Ridgway finishes the edge with a band of gilt and molded floral detail -- also highlighted in gilt.  The result is a lush combination of romanticism with light suggestions of a more formal classicism--appropriate perhaps for a rustic garden fete on the grounds of a dignified estate.

As with modern marketing terms, the names given by Staffordshire potters to their patterns were often chosen for popular appeal rather than a clear connection to the design. Since the late eighteenth century, as classical Mediterranean antiquities became well known in Britain, the term "Etruscan" carried a certain dignified impression. When stretching for an "Etruscan" element in Ridgway's pattern, however, one can at best point to the tiny, vaguely classical urns that appear where the swagged garlands meet.