TWELVE AMERICAN PORCELAIN HARLEQUIN SHELL-SHAPED OYSTER PLATES

GREEN PRINTED MONOGRAMMED BIRD AND YELLOW PRINTED SEAL MARKS FOR UNION PORCELAIN WORKS, GREENPOINT, NEW YORK, THREE WITH RETAILER'S MARKS FOR TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, REGISTRATION DATE FOR JANUARY 4, 1881

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TWELVE AMERICAN PORCELAIN HARLEQUIN SHELL-SHAPED OYSTER PLATES
GREEN PRINTED MONOGRAMMED BIRD AND YELLOW PRINTED SEAL MARKS FOR UNION PORCELAIN WORKS, GREENPOINT, NEW YORK, THREE WITH RETAILER'S MARKS FOR TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, REGISTRATION DATE FOR JANUARY 4, 1881
In two sizes, painted in variant colours and enriched in gilt, each moulded with open oyster shells and a scallop shell well, the periphery with a lobster claw, crab, snail, frog and various small shells resting on a bed of seaweed
10¼ in. (26 cm.) wide and 8½ in. (21.7 cm.) wide (12)

Lot Essay

See Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, American Porcelain 1770-1920, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 8 April 1989 - 25 June 1989, p. 53, fig. 41 for a blue-ground example in the Metropolitan, Inventory no. (68.99.2). Here it is noted that 'some forms were developed to accommodate newly cultivated taste. Porcelain oyster plates... presented the delicacy that was frequently the first of a formal dinner's many courses.'

See Karnitz, p. 150, T.C. Smith was granted a patent for the present design, no. 12105, on January 4, 1881.

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