Part 16
Another white and gold set of Canton china still has existing pieces to show its character. This was probably a dessert-service. A berry-dish and two dessert-plates were sold in Philadelphia, in 1890, for H. L. D. Lewis (one of the Washington heirs), for fifty dollars. They were purchased by the Washington Association of New Jersey (and can be seen at their building in Morristown), with a cup of white porcelain with maroon ribbon and wreath decoration, which also came from Mount Vernon. Still other pieces of Washington china were sold in Philadelphia in 1891, among them portions of a set of Crown Derby with tiny sprigs and flowered border. Pieces of this set were owned by the late William Henry Harrison, Esq., of New York.
A very interesting plate is in the possession of Doctor Allan McLane Hamilton, of New York. It was given as a keepsake to Mrs. Alexander Hamilton by Mrs. George Washington. It descended from Mrs. Hamilton to Philip Hamilton, the father of the present owner. It is of French porcelain, twelve and a half inches in diameter, with slightly crenated edges. On the left rim it is decorated with a festoon of oak leaves with gold acorns; on the right with a border of laurel or myrtle. Above is a lyre with a garland—both in gold. In the centre of the plate is an eagle, perched upon a bundle of thunderbolts, while on his head are the thirteen stars, all in gold; beneath, in script, are the letters G. & M. W., surrounded by a wreath of roses and forget-me-nots. This plate is unique, the remainder of the service being either lost or destroyed.
In the diary of Baron Von Closen, under the date of July 19, 1792, this entry is found: “On my arrival Mrs. Washington requested me to invite Count de Custine—who was then at Colchester—with all the officers of his regiment, to dinner for the next day. The Count accepted the invitation with ten officers of the regiment, and sent Mr. Bellegarde before him with a very valuable present, a set of china coming from his own manufactory at Niederweiler, near Pfalzburg, in Lorraine. It was ornamented with a coat of arms and initials of General Washington, surmounted by a laurel wreath, and was received by Mrs. Washington with most hearty thanks.” I can well believe the latter statement, for this Niederweiler china was by far the most beautiful in quality, decoration, and shape that Washington ever possessed. The pieces were all slightly different, the only universal decoration being a beautiful cipher of Washington’s initials surrounded by a golden brown cloud background, and surmounted by a tiny rose-wreath. The other decorations were of festoons or interlaced wreaths. A saucer of this set, owned by J. Chester Lyman, Esq., is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was given to Timothy Dwight, Mr. Lyman’s ancestor, by Mrs. Custis. The design on this piece consists of festoons of very delicate leaves in various shades of gold. Another piece has wreaths of tiny roses around the edge. A sugar-box and bowl, owned by Mrs. Beverley Kennon, of Washington, bear still different designs. A covered jug of the set is here shown. The mark on this china was the interlaced Cs, the stamp used by Count Custine, and it also is numbered “No. 29.” Martha Washington divided this set among her three granddaughters during her lifetime, which is the reason it is not mentioned in her will.
At Mount Vernon are two beautiful dishes which were presented to the Association by Mr. Corcoran, and are said to have been George Washington’s. One is a salad or berry-dish, seven and a half inches square and an inch and a half deep; the edges are irregularly and gracefully scalloped. There is a narrow rim of gold around the edge; within, a wide band of blue broken by a chain of circular rings in gold, each enclosing a gold dot; within this a narrow band of gold; and a delicate gold beading forms the inside edge of the border. Little bunches and sprigs of flowers are scattered over the centre, having gold stems and leaves and blue blossoms. The plate has the same decoration. Both have the small blue S of the Salopian or Caughley works on the base. Mrs. Russel, of Cambridge, Mass., has a plate of this set, which was given to her by Mr. Corcoran. These three pieces are evidently part of a dessert-service—but where are the other pieces?
The “blue and white china in common use,” referred to in Martha Washington’s will, was of a kind familiar to us all, “old blue Canton.” Several pieces of it are now in the National Museum. Miss Lyon has two dishes of rather better quality that came from Mount Vernon, Nankin china apparently. Others have recently been sold at auction in Philadelphia in 1891. Washington used this cheerful, substantial Canton china “for common use” on his every-day table, just as did every other good and wealthy American citizen of his day and time. Besides the pieces of blue and white Canton china which he ordered of Colonel Tilghman in 1785, Washington also wrote to General Robert Ridgway, on September 12, 1783, a long and carefully expressed letter ordering wine and beer glasses, and decanters and china. “If a neat and complete set of Blue & white Table China could be had upon easy terms, be pleased to inform me of it, and the price—not less than six or eight doz., however, and proportionable number of deep and other Plates, Butter-Boats, Dishes & Tureens will suffice. These things sometimes come in complete Setts ready packed; should this be the case and the number of Pieces greater than what is here mentioned, I should have no objection to a case on that acc’t.”
Washington had very decided opinions and tastes about table furnishings, as he had about dress. When wine was served to him and his visitors in some very ugly cups at Princeton, and he was told that the cups were made by a man who had since turned Quaker, he replied, with his cumbersome and rare humor, that it was a pity the man had not turned Quaker before he made the cups.
The china of Mary Washington did not go to her illustrious son. By her will, made in 1788, she left to her grandson, Fielding Lewis, “half my crockery ware, half my pewter, and my blue and white tea china,” and to her granddaughter, Betty Carter, the other half of the crockery and pewter, and “my red and white china.” Perhaps she fancied the General had enough china, as he apparently did.
Washington progressed in mantel decoration somewhat beyond the plaster “Lyons” and busts that decorated the home of his early married life. The mantel vases described by Mr. Lossing, and shown in an illustration in his book, were sold in Philadelphia, in February, 1891, for four hundred and fifty dollars each. They stood about eighteen inches high, were decorated with butterflies and flowers on a dark blue ground, and had covers surmounted by the Dog Fo. Other vases which once graced the chimney-pieces of Mount Vernon are still owned by members of the Custis family. The profuse mantel decoration of to-day was, however, undreamt of by him.
There are many other pieces of table china now in existence, and proudly shown, that are said to have belonged to Washington. Doubtless their owners consider that they have sufficient proof of the authenticity of their relics, but as I know not the value of their proofs I will not mention their china. I think, with the great number of punch-bowls that once belonged to Washington, and that are mentioned in another chapter, with the vast assortment of rich glass-ware that once was owned by Washington, and that is now in the National Museum, in other public and in many private collections, that the amount of china already named will quite swell up a value far beyond the item in the sworn inventory of the executors of George Washington’s will—“Glass & China in the China Closet, & that up-stairs, & that in the cellar, $800.” What would be a relic-lover’s estimate of the value of that glass and china to-day?
XII. PRESIDENTIAL CHINA
The sets of china used by other Presidents than Washington, while their various owners were living in the Executive Mansion, deserve to be mentioned and described on account of historic interest, though not always for their value as ceramics, and because specimens of them are within the possibility of possession by a china collector. I think the true china-lover will, however, care little to own any piece of porcelain simply because it is said to have belonged to or was eaten from by some great man—if that be its only virtue; and I am sure will care little for much of the china that has graced the table at the White House.
Jefferson was, without doubt, as profusely hospitable a President as ever dwelt in the Executive Mansion of the United States. For this lavish hospitality he may have had a double reason—not only to gratify his well-known liberal disposition and his love of good company as well, but to prove his shrewd suspicion, or rather his firm conviction, that a well-cooked dinner was often a potent factor in accomplishing his desired end when his smooth and persuasive argument or his apparent candor would have failed. A good illustration of his crafty, worldly wisdom is shown in the result of the historically renowned dinner given by him, when Secretary of State, in 1789, at Philadelphia, to President Washington and the prominent leaders of both parties of the House and Senate. A fierce dispute between the Northern and Southern members of Congress had risen over the location of the national capital. The Southerners insisted that the banks of either the Delaware or Potomac should be chosen as a site; the Northerners were equally determined upon the borders of the Susquehanna. An amicable and peaceful settlement followed this famous dinner, and shrewd Jefferson had his own way—the seat of government was placed at Washington, on the Potomac. This lavish hospitality, both in the Executive Mansion and in private life, doubtless had much to do with Jefferson’s subsequent financial embarrassments. Very few of the pieces of table-ware used and owned by Jefferson, either in public or private life, are now to be found. His married life was short, and his housekeeping, both when Secretary of State and President, was entirely in the hands of servants, a condition never favorable to the preservation of china. The dispersion of his household effects caused the disappearance from sight and knowledge of what few pieces remained. Though his silver is carefully preserved by his descendants, they own no china.
An octagonal plate of Rockingham ware, used by Jefferson when President, is now in Washington. It bears the stamp “BRAMELD.” It is of the dark blue shade frequently used in the Chinese designs on that ware, a blue so rich and deep that it gives a character and tone rarely found on pottery, and makes the plate as glorious in tint as a block of choicest lapis lazuli. The glaze is “crazed” on the entire surface of this particular plate, both glaze and color being splintered in places from the brownish pottery body. The plate has evidently been frequently and severely heated in an oven. I have seen other pieces of the same shape, bearing the same design, which had not, however, the honorable distinction of having been owned by Jefferson.
An exceedingly beautiful plate was sold at auction in New York, about fifteen years ago, that was catalogued as having been the property of Jefferson and used on his dinner-table. It was apparently of Chinese manufacture of the type known as Lowestoft. The rim and inner border were diapered in dark blue, relieved by dainty lines of gold. In the centre was the letter “J,” in gold, enclosed in a shield outlined in blue enamel adorned with thirteen stars. Above the shield was a blue and gold helmet with closed visor. This plate brought $40, being of ceramic value as well as of historic interest. There was sold at the same time, for $2.50, a custard-cup of French porcelain painted with detached bachelor’s buttons, which was also said to have been Jefferson’s.
Of the china used by either President Adams I have no definite knowledge, though I have seen several pieces of Oriental china that bore the reputation of having been used by these Presidents during their terms of office.
The china used by Madison was a set of finely painted Lowestoft. Portions of it are owned by descendants in Virginia. He also owned a set of fine French china with his initials.
The next White House china-service of which I have seen authentic pieces is the one known as the Monroe set—Madison’s official china having been destroyed at the burning of the Executive Mansion by the British in 1814. This Monroe set is of French china of good quality. It has around the edge a half-inch band of pale coffee color or brownish buff, edged with a burnished gilt line on either side. It has a small and pretty coffee-cup with extraordinarily flat saucer.
The Andrew Jackson set was of heavy and rather coarse bluish porcelain, apparently of Chinese manufacture, with bands of ugly dull blue and coarsely applied gold, and a conventional and clumsy shield in the centre. It was not very tasteful nor beautiful, any more than was its Presidential owner, and very fitly furnished forth his dining-table.
In Franklin Pierce’s time what is now known as “the red-edged set” was bought, the border being of dark red and gilt, with an inner circle of gilt. It was of French china of fair quality. The cups of this set were very large, while the saucers were exceedingly diminutive; though people of fashion, even at that date, had not wholly given up drinking tea from their saucers. A lady at whose home Judge Story and Daniel Webster were frequent visitors, tells me that those two representative men of their day always drank their cooled tea from their saucers.
The Buchanan set was of very commonplace ware, with a stiff, meagre, and ill-painted spray of flowers in the centre of each plate and on the side of each dish. Ugly as they are, the plates are now valued at forty dollars each. The saucers of this set were disproportionately large, holding much more than the cups. A few pieces of this Buchanan set still remain in Washington, though none are preserved at the White House.
A very full set of Presidential china was bought in Abraham Lincoln’s time. It is of finest French porcelain, with a border of crimson purple or plum color, with delicate lines and dots of gold, and the plates, platters, and saucers have slightly scalloped edges. In the centre of the plates and on the sides of the dishes and small pieces is a very spirited version of the coat of arms of the United States, with the motto “E Pluribus Unum” upon a clouded background of gold. A plate and cup of this set, now in the possession of Miss Henrietta D. Lyon, of Staten Island, is here shown. This design is very dignified and appropriate, and, with the substitution of a blue border with gilt ears of Indian corn, has been reproduced for the present mistress of the White House. Plates of this Abraham Lincoln set sold at the Governor Lyon sale for $4.25 each, and little covered custard- or egg-cups for $1.50 each. I have recently had some of these plates offered to me for $25 apiece. Portions of this set still remain and are used at the White House.
The General Grant set is well known, and is very handsome. The border is of buff and gold, broken once by a small United States shield in high colors. In the centre is a well-painted spray or bunch of flowers, many being the wild flowers of the United States. The coffee-cups of this set were ordered to use at the wedding of the President’s daughter, and were known as the “Nellie Grant cups.” A plate said to have been ordered for the White House in General Grant’s time is here shown.
Of the beautiful and costly set ordered by Mrs. Hayes too much is known, and too many cheaper copies have been sold, and may be seen in any large china-shop, to make it worth while to give any detailed description here. It was made at Limoges by the Havilands, as was also the “Grant set.” It makes a fine room decoration when the various pieces are arranged in the beautiful buffet that President Arthur had made for it, and is more satisfactory in that position than when in use on the table.
It may be asked how all these pieces of Presidential china come to be found in private collections, and offered for sale, and so generally distributed over the country. A very reprehensible custom existed until recent years (and indeed may still be possible) of selling at auction at the end of each Presidential term, or in the middle if thought necessary, whatever household effects the house steward and house occupants chose to consider of no further use. These Presidential sales were, of course, eagerly attended by relic-hunters. At such a sale in President Grant’s day a lot of “old truck,” as it was irreverently called, valued at $500, brought $2,760. As there must be, of course, much breakage of china in the pantry and dining-room of the White House, and as it was considered for many years necessary to have full “sets” of china table-ware, enough to serve an entire dinner, the odd plates, cups and saucers, and dishes were ruthlessly “cleared out” whenever an appropriation was made by the Government, or the President desired to buy a new set. It seems a pity that a few pieces of each of these “state sets” should not have been preserved in a cabinet at the White House to show us the kind of china from which our early rulers ate their daily meals and served their state dinners, as well as to show our varying and halting progress in luxury, refinement, and taste.
XIII. DESIGNS RELATING TO WASHINGTON
One scarcely knows where to begin or end this list when one considers the vast number of pieces of pottery and porcelain that bear the name and ostensibly bear the portrait of Washington—more and more varied even than the Lord Nelson prints in England. Often Washington’s portrait is found with that of Franklin or Lafayette; in such cases I have given the subject of the most prominent or the named design the honor of determining the place on the list. The largest number of these Washington designs occur upon Liverpool mugs and pitchers in black prints. Some few are in blue upon Staffordshire earthenware. In the Huntington Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, may be seen a vast number of ceramic likenesses of the great American. Many of these are single specimens painted by hand—both by artists and amateurs, apparently. One set of four plaques has copies of the Savage, Trumbull, Peale, and Stuart portraits of Washington. Such I have not attempted to describe or classify. One specially comical portrait plaque, painted in China, shows an almond-eyed Washington with his hair _à la chinoise_, with feminine hair ornaments, while on his republican shoulders rests the dark blue sack garment familiar to us as the festival garb of our Chinese washermen. There are in the Trumbull-Prime Collection a large number of Washington pitchers, from which some of the entries on this list are described.
One Liverpool print deserves special mention, for a very interesting story is attached to it, and is told in detail by Benson J. Lossing in his “Mount Vernon and Its Associations.” A dealer in Philadelphia imported a number of pitchers of various sizes, each bearing a portrait of Washington, the design for which had been taken from Gilbert Stuart’s picture painted for the Marquis of Lansdowne. Nutter had engraved this portrait for Hunter’s edition of Lavater, and a copy of the engraving was printed upon the pitchers. Mr. Dorsey, a sugar-dealer of Philadelphia, purchased several of these pitchers, and after a number of unsuccessful attempts to separate the part bearing the portrait from the rest of the pitcher, managed at last, by using the broad-faced hammer of a shoemaker, to break out the picture unharmed with a single sharp blow. The pottery fragment bearing the portrait was handsomely framed by Mr. James R. Smith, of Philadelphia, and sent to Judge Washington at Mount Vernon, where it was hung and was known as the pitcher portrait. A copy of it is here shown.
Mr. Smith owned a crayon portrait of Washington, a copy made by Sharpless himself of his original picture of Washington. On the back of this Sharpless portrait was a long eulogy of Washington, written by an English gentleman. Mr. Smith copied a portion of this eulogy on the back of the pitcher portrait—as much of the inscription, in fact, as there was room to write. It ran thus, as given in “Alden’s Collections of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions:” “Washington the Defender of his Country, the Founder of Liberty and the Friend of Man. History and Tradition are explored in vain for a parallel to his character. In the annals of modern greatness he stands alone, and the noblest names of antiquity lose their lustre in his presence. Born the Benefactor of Mankind he united all the qualities necessary to an illustrious career. Nature made him great, he made himself virtuous. Called by his country to the defense of her liberties, he triumphantly vindicated the rights of humanity and, on the pillars of National Independence, laid the foundations of a Great Republick. Twice invested with supreme magistracy, by the unanimous vote of a free people, he surpassed in the cabinet the glories of the field; and voluntarily resigning the sword and the sceptre, retired to the shades of private life. A spectacle so new and so sublime was contemplated with the profoundest admiration, and the name of Washington, adding new lustre to humanity, resounded to the remotest regions of the earth. Magnanimous in youth, glorious through life, great in death, his highest ambition the happiness of mankind, his noblest victory the conquest of himself. Bequeathing to posterity the inheritance of his fame, and building his monument in the hearts of his countrymen he lived—the ornament of the eighteenth century, he died—regretted by the mourning world.”
The centre portion of this inscription has been within a few years cut out of the back of the frame by some vandal hands. The entire eulogy, as written on the back of the Sharpless portrait, can be seen in Lossing’s “Mount Vernon and Its Associations,” and in Sparks’s “Writings of Washington,” and as a masterpiece of flattery—and honest flattery, too—it knows no equal.
This pitcher portrait descended to Lawrence Washington, Esq. It was exhibited at the Philadelphia State-House in 1876, and was sold at auction April 22, 1891, at Philadelphia, for $75.
Liverpool pitchers bearing the design like that of the pitcher portrait are rare in America, but are found in a few private collections; and oval plaques are also found bearing the same portrait. These latter have a swelling surface, as if cut from the side of a pitcher. There are specimens with this print in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. Some years ago a framed pitcher portrait was found in the attic of an old house in Washington Street, Newport, and is now in the possession of Benjamin Smith, Esq., of Philadelphia.