AN INITIALLED AMERICAN MARKET DINNER SERVICE

Details

AN INITIALLED AMERICAN MARKET DINNER SERVICE
CIRCA 1805

Each piece centered by an oval medallion finely painted in tones of sepia with a large country house at the end of a tree-lined drive, the gilt interlaced initials JS above, all within a series of narrow borders picked out in sepia, peach, gilt and iron-red and edged in blue enamel, comprising:
A pair of vegetable tureens and covers, small frits, 11 3/8in. (28.9cm.) wide
A pair of sauce tureens and covers, tiny knop chips, short line
Four sauceboats and stands, tiny handle frits, one boat with some rim touch-up
A pair of well-and-tree platters, one with three small underside chips, 17 3/8in. (44.2cm.) wide
Two pairs of oval platters, one tiny chip, one with glaze cracks, 14½ and 13¼in. (36.8 and 33.7cm.) wide
Twenty-six dinner plates, three with a rim line, four with rim touch-up, one with repaired rim break, 9 7/8in. (25.6cm.) diam.
Twenty soup plates, two with a rim line, five with small rim touch-up, 9¾in. (24.8cm.) diam.
Sixteen side plates, a rim line to four, one chip, one star crack, 7 5/8in. (19.4cm.) diam.
Six pudding dishes, one shallow chip, one small rim touch-up, one line 6 1/8in. (15.5cm.) diam. (86)

Lot Essay

Made for John Stagg of Staten Island, New York, who, with his brother Thomas, was a builder in late 18th century New York City. Their invoices for a 1771 new city market, for new powder houses, and for work on Trinity Church survive. Several pieces from the service were exhibited at the New York Historical Society in 1984 and are published in New York and The China Trade, D.S. Howard and C.E. Wright, p. 113.