James Monroe
The amaranth-colored dessert service commissioned by President James Monroe in 1817 from Pierre-Louis Dagoty and Edouard D. Honoré, Paris, was part of an elaborate redefinition of the Presidential stage that followed the United States’ victory over England in the War of 1812. Monroe sought to create an imposing backdrop for the Presidency that visually represented the nation’s determination to oppose future intervention in the affairs of independent American countries by European powers – the basis of the 1823 doctrine that bears his name. Along with gilt furniture by French court cabinetmaker Pierre-Antoine Bellangé, and clocks and other fine metalwork by the likes of the legendary artisan Phillipe Thomire, this handsome eagle-ornamented service translated the ambitions of America’s fifth chief executive to a visual vocabulary. Seen as the first service designed for the exclusive use by an American president, its highly symbolic design reaffirmed Monroe’s desire to showcase American strength and resolve. The border pattern consists of five allegorical trompe-l’oeil reliefs representing Strength, Art, Commerce, Science, and Agriculture. Pictured is a Dessert Plate.

James K. Polk
The Polk State Service is counted among the most beautiful examples of Presidential tableware. It was made in 1846 by the firm of Edouard D. Honoré, Paris, and its design reflected a burgeoning revival of the romantic Rococo aesthetic associated with 18th-century France’s Louis XV. Encompassing both dinner and dessert pieces – the latter delineated by a soft green border and the inclusion of polychrome flowers – the Polk service was ordered by the president’s trusted friend William W. Corcoran through New York merchant Alexander Stewart & Co. The decoration of the Polk service represents a revision in Presidential imagery, whereby a lone shield of stars and stripes replaced the Federal eagle traditionally incorporated in the design of such wares. This substitution was significant, for the eagle represented strong national authority, while the shield symbolized the union of individual states – and the independent jurisdiction of those states. Such a change would have been important to the then simmering issue of slavery, which threatened impending westward expansion and the stability of the Union, itself. Indeed, a politically savvy President Polk was sure to carefully distinguish between state and Federal powers in his 1845 inaugural address: “The Government of the United States is one of delegated and limited powers, and it is by a strict adherence to the clearly granted powers and by abstaining from the exercise of doubtful or unauthorized implied powers that we have the only sure guarantee against the recurrence of those unfortunate collisions between the Federal and State authorities which have occasionally so much disturbed the harmony of our system and even threatened the perpetuity of our glorious union.” Pictured is a Dessert Plate.

Abraham Lincoln
There is probably no more recognizable pattern of Presidential porcelain than the Solferino purple and gold-bordered, French-manufactured china ordered originally by Mary Todd Lincoln in May 1861 from the New York firm of E.V. Haughwout & Co. A stock pattern adapted to use for the official entertaining of an American president through the inclusion of a polychrome American eagle perched on a red, white and blue shield, it became an iconic representation of the Civil War president soon after his April 1865 assassination. The pattern’s association with the “Great Emancipator” led to its reorder by the subsequent administrations of Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Chester A. Arthur. It is also counted as the most popular presidential pattern for souvenir wares, from the late 19th century to the present day. Pictured is a Dinner Plate.

Ulysses S Grant
The Grant State Service adhered to mid-19thcentury domestic taste, and in particular a fascination with ornamental flowers. The overall porcelain forms and decoration – which included a mustard colored border framed by concentric black lines and a scalloped edge – were consistent with imported wares in the fashionable Greco-Roman taste available in American cities such as New York, Boston, and Washington. The one unique feature of the 1870 Grant order, which was made by Haviland & Company of Limoges, France, was the inclusion of a red, gold, and black variation of the coat of arms of the United States.1 Pictured is a Dinner Plate.

Rutherford B. Hayes
The Hayes State Dinner Service is considered the most ambitious and costly of Presidential orders. Its design was initiated through a chance meeting between newspaper illustrator Theodore R. Davis and Mrs. Hayes in the greenhouses of the Executive Mansion in 1879. Davis would eventually suggest a more ambitious design for a new service then being proposed by the first lady, where a broad palette of American flora and fauna would replace her initial idea of fern leaves then being collected. In the end, Davis served as the designer of the service that was made by Haviland & Company in Limoges, France. The artist provided not only original artwork for over sixty individual pieces, but he also designed unique patented forms for everything from soup plates to teacups and saucers; additional designs – including that for a milk and bread set – were not placed in production probably due to the already exorbitant cost of the service. The often discussed Hayes service is overlooked for its political significance. Though an artistic and technological marvel, the multi-piece service remains one of the strongest transmissions of a president’s ambition for the nation to the applied arts. The United States of the 1870s was experiencing vast immigration from Europe as well as continuing growing pains through western expansion. Added to these was the very potent aftermath of the Civil War; Hayes’s 1876 victory was secured through his promise to remove Federal troops from the South, bringing the Civil War to a full close twelve years after its text book ending. The definition of ‘American’ was quickly changing – unfortunately with prejudice forming upon geographic, ideological, and cultural lines. In his inaugural address of March 5, 1877, President Hayes attempted to reassure the nation that change was necessary. He called for “not merely a united North or a united South, but a united country.”3 The Hayes service translated this message to the president’s official table, with the nation united – if only symbolically – through polychrome representations of the diverse flora and fauna from the north, south, east, and west.4 Pictured is an Ice Cream Plate.

Theodore Roosevelt
The somewhat regal gold and white design of the Roosevelt State Dinner Service was no doubt intended to complement the new, classically inspired interiors of the renovated White House, which were created by the prestigious New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White. The china reflected the European court-like manner of the modern Roosevelt Presidency, whereby the nation’s youngest president implemented “strict rules that applied to every employee and every function of the house.”5 Manufactured by Wedgwood of England, the chosen base pattern was actually an adaptation of an existing stock design, known as ‘Ulunda.’ The Roosevelt variation of this cream-colored porcelain had the border representing architectural reeding especially delineated in gold. A polychrome version of The Great Seal of the United States was also incorporated into the design. This special version of the ‘Ulunda’ pattern received a British patent office registry number on October 15, 1902. Pictured is a Dinner Plate.

Woodrow Wilson
The simple design of the Wilson State Service was in keeping with a very clear refinement of the still strong American appetite for classicism that paralleled World War I. The extravagant, highly decorative, and occasionally theatrical interpretations of ancient Roman design that had been born of the late-19th-century’s Beaux-arts and ‘City Beautiful’ movements – and well represented in the 1902 remodeling of the White House for Theodore Roosevelt – lost their favor through disillusionment of war. The new American classicism was unpretentious and bold. Reflecting this transformation in design vocabulary, the 1918 Wilson commission was the first Presidential dinner service to be made in the United States, and the first to incorporate the Seal of the President of the United States as opposed to that of the nation. Made by Lenox of Trenton, New Jersey, it was described by its designer Frank G. Holmes as “so simple and so unostentatious that it cannot but suit the most aesthetic taste and yet so rich in tone it commensurates with the dignity of the home of our Chief Executive.”6 Pictured is a Service Plate.