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Butter cooler

Butter dish and cover on fixed stand
Maker:  Angoulême factory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
 ...
Butter cooler
Butter dish and cover on fixed stand
Maker:  Angoulême factory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
 ...
Butter dish and cover on fixed stand Maker: Angoulême factory Porcelain (hard paste), gilt 1780-1788
Status
On view
Label Text

As president, George Washington desired tablewares that would strike a stylistic balance between appearing too regal and not being sufficiently dignified enough to impress foreign dignitaries. In March 1790, he purchased a 309-piece service from the departing French minister, the Comte de Moustier. Moustier had acquired most of these porcelains from the royal manufactory at Sèvres in 1778, then added pieces from the Angoulême and Nast factories over the next decade. All are minimally decorated with gilded rims. Such understated elegance matched Washington's preference for neat and plain, while offering his guests fashionable French porcelain with a possible subtle reference to ancient white marble statuary and republican ideals.

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Date1780-1788
Geography Made - France
DimensionsOverall (without cover): 2 in. × 9 1/4 in. × 9 1/4 in. (5.08 cm × 23.5 cm × 23.5 cm) Overall (cover): 1 1/4 in. × 4 1/4 in. × 4 1/4 in. (3.18 cm × 10.8 cm × 10.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Betty Taylor Bliss Dandridge, 1907
Object numberW-541
DescriptionA:
Circular molded dish with a thrown cylinder attached in its well which forms a cup or tub. Dish has a plain rim and flaring or everted sides with an integral foot ring, and is decorated with gilded bands around its rim and foot. Cup or tub is finished with fine ribs near its rim and base and a gilded band around its rim; the inside of the rim is unglazed.

B:
Low-domed cover with two canted-corner tab handles attached on opposite sides and a squared strap handle attached at top center. Rim and handles picked out with gilded bands.

Alternate names for this form include: butter dish, butter tub, butter boat.

Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 2006), p. 148, cat. 42.

Detweiler, Susan Gray, "The Ceramics," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 498, 500.

Detweiler, Susan Gray, George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), pp. 119-34.

Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: MVLA, 1962), pp. 29-34, fig. 22 (center).
MarkingsOverglaze mark stenciled or stamped on underside of dish (very worn and nearly invisible, in red): "MANUFRE/ de M.GR le Duc/ d'Angouleme/ [a] Paris". Underglaze incised script "D" near foot (unidentified mark).
Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.
Butter dish and cover on fixed stand
Maker:  Angoulême factory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
 ...
1780-1788
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Porcelain (possibly hard paste), gilt
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Maker:  Nast Factory
Porcelain (possibly hard paste), gilt
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c. 1785
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Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
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1778-1788
1778-1788
Egg cup
Maker:  Sèvres porcelain factory, France
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1778-1788
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Porcelain (possibly hard paste), gilt
c. 1785
c. 1785
Saucepan
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt, wood
1778-1788
1778-1788
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