August 5, 2019

By BRIAN KRAPF

This large (12″) vase was made by Falcon Pottery in 1941 to celebrate the first wartime meeting between Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt, which took place at Placentia Bay in Newfoundland. Known on the market as Falconware, the company produced a variety of porcelain pieces to commemorate the historic event. Each utilizes the same sepia transfer pattern. This vase is by far the largest piece produced and is quite rare.

The Atlantic Meeting took place beginning on 9 August 1941. Despite Churchill and FDR starting a  regular correspondence with each other in 1939, this was their first face-to-face meeting in more than twenty years and the first of eleven wartime meetings. The meeting took place in secret. Roosevelt’s cover story was that he was away on a fishing trip.

The meeting culminated on 14 August with the signing of the Atlantic Charter, which outlined US and UK joint aims for the world. These included no territorial aggrandizement, no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people, restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade restrictions, global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. Allied nations accepting of the Atlantic Charter signed a formalized version known as the Declaration of the United Nations on January 1, 1942. This document later become the basis for the modern United Nations we know today.