THREE PRESIDENTIAL PLATES

CIRCA 1868

Details

THREE PRESIDENTIAL PLATES
Circa 1868
Each painted in the center with a Gothic cypher monogram USG flanked by crossed laurel branches and within a gilt roundel, all on a gilt field filled with rose vine and butterflies and with four fan-shaped panels of court scenes or bird and flower vignettes, comprising a soup plate, a dinner plate and a side plate
10, 9¾ and 8in. (25.4, 24.7 and 20.3cm.) diam. (3)

Lot Essay

This service was ordered by Captain Daniel Ammen (1819-1898), commander of the Piscataqua, for his friend General Ulysses S. Grant. Ammen ordered an identical service for himself with the single initial A. Both services were shipped home by the American firm of Olyphant & Co. in 1868, and Ammen delivered the Grant service to the White House in early 1869, shortly after President Grant's inauguration. A plate from the collection of the Newark Museum was exhibited in New York and the China Trade, and the story is related by D.S. Howard in the catalogue, p. 121. See also J.Q. Feller, The Canton Famille Rose Porcelains, p. 24

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