The Staffordshire potter A. Stevenson produced over twenty designs featuring American scenes, presumably for the American market. This platter depicts the view from Weehawken, New Jersey, which was then referred to as Weehawk. Weehawken stands opposite Manhattan at what is now 42nd Street. Ferry service between the small township and the city began even before 1700. Famous for its rugged scenery, Weehawken also gained notoriety as the site of the duel in which Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804.

The view is based on an 1823 aquatint by John Hill after a watercolor by the Irish artist William Guy Wall. Wall would have painted the scene from the New Jersey Palisades, looking over the township and across the Hudson River to the Narrows in the distance, Staten Island on the right, and Long Island through the center and left.