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Dinner plate

Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1772-1788
Dinner plate
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1772-1788
Dinner plate Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory Porcelain (hard paste), gilt 1772-1788
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.

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Date1772-1788
Maker (French, 1756 - present)
Geography Made - France
DimensionsOverall (rim): 1 1/4 in. x 9 3/4 in. x 9 3/4 in. (3.18 cm x 24.77 cm x 24.77 cm) Overall (foot): 5 13/16 in. x 5 13/16 in. (14.78 cm x 14.78 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. H. Burr, 1938
Object numberW-719
DescriptionCircular molded plate with a scalloped rim and shallow foot ring. Rim features six large scallops separated by one smaller one, and is decorated with a gilded dentate (dent-de-loup) border.

Alternate name for this form includes: service plate.

Published ReferencesCadou, Carol Borchert, 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. See fn. 231, p. 193, for Moustier's purchase from Sèvres on May 9, 1778, which includes "60 Assiettes 6/360 [livres]".

Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: MVLA, 1962), pp. 29-34, fig. 19.

"Washington Gold on White Porcelain," undated typescript in MVLA object files .
MarkingsOverglaze mark painted on underside (in blue): factory mark or cipher of intertwined Ls surmounted by a crown, four dots to the lower right. (Crown indicates hard paste porcelain; and the dots are the gilder's mark). Underglaze incised mark at upper right of factory mark in foot: "| |" (unidentified potter's or turner'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.
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1772-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft-paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (hard-paste), gilt
1772-1788
1778-1788
Dessert plate
Maker: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Porcelain (soft paste), gilt
1778-1788
1778-1788
Dinner plate
Porcelain (hard-paste), gilt
Maker: Sevres Porcelain Manufactory
c. 1778-1788
1778-1788
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