Pattern name: Canadian Sports; maker: J. Marshall & Co.; Bo'ness, Scotland; ca. 1882-1897; earthenware; diameter: 19.1 cm.
CMC 980.111.257

Canada has been the birthplace of many sports, including ice hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and tobogganing or bobsledding. Today, these sports are popular not only in Canada but also in other parts of the world. In the nineteenth century, Canadian scenes were as appealing to other nations as Canadian sports are today. Earthenware dishes with Canadian scenes, including "Canadian Sports" scenes like this one of a boy tobogganing, were produced in British potteries not only for buyers in what we now call Canada but also for an even larger market in the United States. There is also evidence that they were sold as far away as Mexico and Portugal.

This illustration first appeared on a series of Christmas cards published in Montreal in the 1880s.