DESIGN PATENTED AUGUST 10TH, 1880, GREEN PRINTED MONOGRAM MARK, IRON-RED FABRICATION MARK INDICATING THAT THE DESIGNS ARE AFTER THEO: R. DAVID.

This set of eighteen plates were reproduced after the china service created for President Rutherford B. Hayes by Haviland & Co. in 1879 and delivered to the White House in 1880. Depicting a variety of naturalistic images of American flora and fauna, the set was a unique departure from earlier services of presidential porcelain. Discussed in depth by Margaret B. Klapthor in Official White House China, 1879 to the Present, (Washington, 1972), the Hayes service is distinguished not as only the most extensive White House service to date, it was also the most costly. The reception of the vividly decorated service was mixed; "Everyone had something to say about it, pro and con" (Klapthor, p.113). However, the intense public interest in the new state service was such that its designer, Theodore Davis, immediately decided to take out design patents for the patterns to be reproduced for public sale.
For further information and illustration of the Hayes service and marks, see Klapthor, pp. 97-121. A similar set sold Christie's New York, 17 June 1997, lot 377.