Ladle

Cream Pail and Ladle
Fused silverplate on copper, glass
c. 1784

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This diminutive ladle was used to serve cream or sugar in coffee or tea. It arrived at Mount Vernon in late 1784 with other English plated tea and coffee wares George Washington had requested. Each piece was engraved with his crest. Guests to Mount Vernon took notice of these fashionable Neoclassical imports. One visitor in June 1796, offered tea at the usual hour of seven in the evening, described "the large and magnificent Portico at the back of the house where the tea equipage was paraded in order."

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Datec. 1784

Geography Possibly manufactured - EnglandPossibly manufactured - England

Medium/TechniqueFused silverplate on copper

DimensionsOverall: 3/4 in. x 5 5/8 in. x 1 1/2 in. (1.91 cm x 14.29 cm x 3.81 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, 1975

Object numberW-2669

DescriptionLadle with oval bowl, pointed on one end with a flared pouring lip opposite. Rounded, downturned handle with beaded edge. Engraved on front of handle with George Washington's crest: a griffin rising (facing the viewer's left) from a coronet with three strawberry leaves.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 112-3, cat. 30.

Kathryn C. Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver (Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1957), 42-5.

William Armstrong, "Some New Washington Relics. I. From the Collection of Mrs. B.W. Kennon," The Century Magazine 40/1 (May 1890): 21.

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