Sunderland lustreware plate with a pink lustre rim. Transfer-printed in black and hand-colouring showing a sailor, Jack Crawford (1775-1813) dressed in blue, nailing a red ensign to the mast using a marline-spike. The iconography is based on a popular print.

The plate is inscribed: ‘Jack Crawford the Hero of Camperdown Octr 11th, 1797’.
Crawford was a native of Sunderland and when the colours of his ship the Venerable were shot away at the Battle of Camperdown, he went aloft and nailed them to the main topgallant masthead (see also AAA4498). He became a local hero, with a statue in Sunderland, and commemorative pottery and medals for sale.