Lot Essay
This set of twelve plates were reproduced after the remarkable china service created for President Rutherford B. Hayes 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. These plates bear that pattern mark which was issued in 1880.
During the subsequent administrations of Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland, the Hayes service continued to be employed as the state service, and two further orders were placed in 1884 and 1886, both from a Washington retailer and from the Haviland company directly (Susan G. Detwiler, American Presidential China (Washington, D.C.; 1975), p.58.) Some of the Hayes service china purchased at this time bears the 1880 patent mark and survives in the White House collection (Barbara Himmelfarb, Official White House China: A Presentation from the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1979), p.21). For futher information and illustrations of the Hayes service and its marks, see Klapthor, pp.97-121.
During the subsequent administrations of Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland, the Hayes service continued to be employed as the state service, and two further orders were placed in 1884 and 1886, both from a Washington retailer and from the Haviland company directly (Susan G. Detwiler, American Presidential China (Washington, D.C.; 1975), p.58.) Some of the Hayes service china purchased at this time bears the 1880 patent mark and survives in the White House collection (Barbara Himmelfarb, Official White House China: A Presentation from the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1979), p.21). For futher information and illustrations of the Hayes service and its marks, see Klapthor, pp.97-121.