Skip to main content
Collections Menu

Egg cup

Egg cup
Maker:  Sèvres porcelain factory, France
Porcelain (soft-paste), gilt
1778-1788
Egg cup
Egg cup
Maker:  Sèvres porcelain factory, France
Porcelain (soft-paste), gilt
1778-1788
Egg cup Maker: Sèvres porcelain factory, France Porcelain (soft-paste), gilt 1778-1788
Status
Not 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.

Read MoreRead Less
Date1778-1788
Maker (French, 1756 - present)
Geography Made - France
DimensionsOverall (Diameter of rim): 1 3/4 in. x 1 7/8 in. x 1 7/8 in. (4.45 cm x 4.76 cm x 4.76 cm) Overall (Diameter of foot): 1 3/8 in. x 1 3/8 in. (3.49 cm x 3.49 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, 1956
Object numberW-2128/B
DescriptionEgg cup with ovoid-shaped body on a slightly flared pedestal foot, decorated with a gilded dentate (dent-de-loup) border around the outside of rim and gilded bands around top and bottom of foot. Fine rib just below rim and at top and bottom of foot.

Alternate names for this form include: egg dish, coquetier.

Published ReferencesCadou, Carol Borchert, The George Washington Collection" Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 2006), 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), 119-34.

Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: MVLA, 1962), 29-34. fig. 22.

William Armstrong, "Some New Washington Relics. I. From the Collection of Mrs. B.W. Kennon," The Century Magazine 40/1 (May 1890): 20.
MarkingsOverglaze mark painted on bottom (in blue): factory mark or cipher of intertwined Ls with a script "g" below (unidentified gilder's 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.
Estate Hours

Open today from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

iconDirections & Parking
buy tickets online & save