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Coffee cup

Coffee cup
Maker:  Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory, France
Porcelain (hard-paste),  ...
Coffee cup
Coffee cup
Maker:  Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory, France
Porcelain (hard-paste),  ...
Coffee cup Maker: Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory, France Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt 1779-1782
Status
Not on view
Label Text

At Martha Washington's invitation, French officers of General Rochambeau's army dined at Mount Vernon on July 20, 1782. The Comte de Custine de Sarreck, commander of the Saintonge regiment, sent ahead of his arrival a splendid tea and coffee service specifically made for the Washingtons at his Niderviller porcelain factory. The service's stunning array of gilded and enameled borders, each with its own pattern number painted on the pieces' undersides, suggests Custine intended it to advertise his wares to a new American market. Gifts of porcelain were common between the French aristocracy and Americans who traveled to Paris. The service Custine presented to the Washingtons is, however, the only known instance of 18th-century French porcelain crafted for an American recipient.

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Datec. 1782
Maker (French, 1754 - present)
Geography Made - France
DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 2 in. × 2 7/8 in. × 2 1/8 in. (5.08 cm × 7.3 cm × 5.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Henry A. Wise, II, MD, John Sergeant Wise, Jr., and E. Tayloe Wise, 2002
Object numberW-2002/A
DescriptionCylindrical cup with an applied, molded, broken-scroll, ear-shaped handle; underside flat with foot integral with sides. Decorated in overglaze polychrome enamels and gilt with "GW" monogram nestled in a golden-brown cloud surmounted by a chaplet or wreath of three pink roses opposite of handle. Gilded border features leafy scrolls against a band of horizontal lines above a narrow band intertwined with a leafy garland. Gilded rim and foot; handle picked out in gilt with bellflowers and a foliate terminal.
Published ReferencesCadou, Carol Borchert, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), p. 89, cat. 22.

Detweiler, Susan Gray, "The Ceramics," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 499, 500.

Detweiler, Susan Gray, George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), pp. 67-76.

Lossing, Benson J. Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial (New York: W. A. Townsend and Company, 1859), pp. 240-41. Lossing incorrectly identified "The set of china presented…by the French officers to Mrs. Washington as "MW" monogrammed service presented by Van Braam to Martha Washington in 1796.

Meadows, Christine. "The Custine China." MVLA Annual Report, 1978, pp. 26-8.

Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: MVLA, 1962), pp. 25-28, fig. 17 (top left).
MarkingsOverglaze mark painted on underside (in black): factory mark or cipher of intertwined Cs over "No. 20". Underglaze incised mark to right of factory mark: "V".
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.
Professional photography
c. 1782
Coffee cup
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Maker:  Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory
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Maker:  Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory, France
Porcelain (hard-paste), en ...
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Saucer
Maker:  Niderviller pottery and porcelain factory
Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt ...
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Coffee cup
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Coffee cup
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
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