Like many another enterprise, the idea of forming a collection of china belonging to past presidents long preceded its actual undertaking. Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, while presiding over the Mansion, each conceived a plan somewhat similar to the one which later on was inaugurated and carried to nearly its present state of completion by Mrs. Roosevelt—to gather together by means of patriotic loan or gift specimens of presidential china which had come into the possession of descendants of the original owners. For, with the revival of interest in all things pertaining to the past history of our country, upon search it was discovered with surprise and dismay that very little of the older pieces of porcelain remained upon the White House pantry shelves, and that a knowledge of their characteristics was therefore in danger of being entirely lost. The cause of this state of things, by the way, may be directly traced to the time of George Washington, for, when he removed the seat of Government from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, Congress enacted a law whereby "the decayed furnishings of the President's House should be sold for refurnishing the new house in Philadelphia." Thereafter, when the city of Washington became the permanent home of the Government, with each incoming administration Congress voted a sum of money (frequently twenty thousand dollars) for fresh furnishings for the President's House, the amount to be expended under the direction and according to the taste of the new Chief Executive and his family. And any of the old furnishings which they might be pleased to consider "decayed" were promptly sold at public sale—carpets, tables, chairs, windowhangings, beds, linen, tableware, etc., etc. This practice led to greater or less alterations in the character of the interior of the mansion with almost every administration, and twice in its history—under President Monroe, after its partial destruction by the fire of the British soldiers in 1814, and under President Roosevelt, who, in his message to Congress submitting the architects' report, declared that it "had become disfigured by incongruous additions and changes"—the White House interior has undergone complete remodeling and refurnishing. At the present time, restored to the plan of James Hoban, its original architect, and made consistent with modern ideas of sanitation, the home of our presidents is one of appropriate dignity and utility. And, in place of the careless and haphazard manner in which it formerly was looked after by the Government, the White House has been put under the direct supervision of the Bureau of Buildings and Grounds.
The White House collection of presidential china, although far from as complete as it eventually will be, is noteworthy in that perhaps to a greater degree than most other displays of historical relics in this country it bears interesting and intimate witness to the progress, halting and varying as it has been, in luxury and in taste of the American people throughout the century and more of national life. For, unlike the existing specimens of Anglo-American pottery which form the special subject of this volume, and which in early years found a place upon the humble tables of the mass of American citizens, the White House collection almost uniformly presents examples of fine and costly porcelains, the choicest output of French, Dutch, English, and Oriental potteries which was brought overseas to grace the boards of our forefathers of wealth and fashion. Exquisite design, color, and form characterize several of the groups belonging to those administrations which were co-temporary with the vogue of French taste in America, due to the close relations with that country growing out of its attitude toward the American struggle for independence, as, for example, some of the Washington, the Madison, and the Monroe pieces. The Polk china, too, with its dainty bird design, displays the same characteristics; while the Pierce and Lincoln groups attract the eye for the broad bands of rich color and the graceful forms which they display. The showy Hayes and Arthur specimens, challenging the beholder to pause and examine, are a reminder of the current styles of interior decoration which were popular in that flamboyant era we have come to designate as mid-Victorian; the Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison groups, on the other hand, claiming attention for the quiet elegance of their decoration, portraying the prevailing taste of the succeeding decade as well as that of their sponsors. And one will pause, as the writer did, before the Roosevelt exhibit, appreciating how distinctly its simple elegance accords with the recognized trend of to-day's thought. Indeed, so expressive not only of the popular inclination of the moment but also of that patriotic ideal which the America of to-day has developed, is the Roosevelt china, that the suggestion has been offered to perpetuate the design for the official White House table, the Taft and Wilson administrations having already signified their approval by merely supplying breakages from it in place of introducing other styles. A piece of china which belonged with every properly planned set in our early Republican times, and one which a later-day mode seems to have relegated to disuse, is the fruit-compote, a number of examples of which may be seen in the collection. This dish consists of a bowl, sometimes round but more often oblong or diamond-shaped, generally of openwork lattice pattern, and set upon a standard from six to ten inches high. Decorated with the same design as the remainder of the set, the compote is an imposing piece, an excellent specimen being the beautiful one illustrated with the Lincoln china. Another piece, which by the way present day fashion is returning to favor, is the pretty little covered custard-cup, an example of which the Lincoln group likewise presents. Also, a punch bowl, decorated to match the other pieces, was oft-times included in old-time sets of porcelain. The Coat of Arms of the United States has been several times fittingly incorporated in the pattern adopted for state sets, the number of stars it displays equaling the number of states in the Union at the time of printing.
Although George Washington died before the completion of the Executive Mansion, in the erection of which he was deeply interested, the story of presidential china properly begins with mention of the wares once used by him, a small number of pieces of which stand at the head of the White House collection. The years of Washington's life spanned the periods between pewter and porcelain as articles of table use in America, the close of the War of the Revolution rather definitely marking the transition.
That Washington owned and used pewter, many dinner dishes of that material decorated with his crest and initials remain to attest; while the contents of his camp mess chest, now preserved in the United States National Museum in Washington, D. C, are of pewter. But the war ended and peace restored, our first president had leisure to indulge the fondness which he, in common with Benjamin Franklin, conspicuously possessed for those "little azure-tinted grotesques that, under the notion of men and women, float about uncircumscribed by any element, in that world before perspective—a china teacup." Attactive indeed to Washington must have been the newspaper advertisements of his day announcing the infrequent arrival of vessels from the Orient, and setting forth long lists of cargoes of china, teas, and precious stuffs, to be sold at "Publick Vendue." A letter written by him under date of 1785 is extant, in which he gives orders for the purchase at one of these sales in Baltimore, among other articles, of a "sett of the best Nankin Table China, Ditto—best Evening Cups and Saucers, A sett of large blue and white China, 1 Dozen small bowls blue and white, 6 Wash hand Guglets (small jugs) and Basons, etc., etc." Soon after his inauguration in New York in 1789, Washington established himself in a mansion on Franklin Square which had been repaired and refurnished, and which became known as the President's Palace. In a letter to a friend, a young New York woman of that time writes: "There is scarcely anything talked of now but General Washington and the Palace . . . the best of furniture in every room and the greatest quantity of plate and china that I ever saw ..." By the time of his return to private life at Mount Vernon, Washington had evidently acquired a goodly quantity of porcelain, for he gave directions for the appropriation of a small room in the remodeled house for "the Sevres china and other things of that sort which are not in common use." The tableware which was in common use both in New York and in Mount Vernon was the blue and white Canton ware which is familiar to all, two pieces of which—a badly cracked platter and a dinner plate—which were purchased at President Washington's sale of household effects when he left New York for Philadelphia in 1790, are to be seen in the White House collection. The remaining articles in the Washington group include a cup and saucer which formed a part of the well-known "white and gold tea-set" belonging to Martha Washington, and a dinner plate of the "Cincinnati set" (to which Order Washington belonged), over the acquisition of which there has been much discussion. It is now agreed that Washington most probably purchased the set himself upon its arrival from China, where quantities of it were decorated with the insignia of the Order from a drawing supplied in America. As may be seen in the illustration, the design which occupies the center of the plate, within a border of blue Oriental scroll and leaf ornaments, consists of a figure of winged Fame in a light green robe and pink scarf, blowing a trumpet and holding suspended from one hand a colored representation of the Society's badge. A plate of the "set given me by Mr. Van Braam," so designated by Martha Washington in her will, and popularly known as "the Martha Washington States" china, is illustrated and described in a former chapter of this volume. A number of pieces of this set are in the National Museum at Washington and other pieces, said to be reproductions, are at Mount Vernon, but the White House collection is without a specimen.
John Adams occupied the President's House (as it was then known) but nine months, completing his term begun in Philadelphia. Unfinished and uncomfortable as the mansion was, (the famous East Room was used to dry the family laundry and fireplaces barely took the chill from the large drafty apartments), nevertheless its levees and state dinners were conducted with the same regard for ceremony for which Washington had established the precedent. While residing abroad, John Adams had made many purchases of furniture and tableware, some of which he doubtless used in Philadelphia and in Washington, but as yet the White House collection contains but two articles with which to commemmorate his administration—the bowl of a cut-glass goblet (the stem and base having disappeared) set in a properlyfitted silver standard, and a framed silhouette of Abigail Adams. The bowl is etched with floral wreaths festooned from a decorative band, and upon one side is the letter "A." Underneath the letter are the initials S. C. T.—Sarah Corcoran Thom, to whom the goblet was given by a great-grandson of John Adams, who had her initials placed upon it. The goblet was presented to the collection by Mrs. Harry Reade, the daughter of Mrs. Thom. The silhouette is an interesting memento of that period, exhibiting Mrs. Adams in a quaint frilled head-dress. A letter of presentation accompanies the relic, it having originally been a gift to a classmate of Mrs. Adams, a daughter of Jeremiah Bailey, by whom it was given to the donor to the White House collection.
A notion of extreme simplicity in all matters pertaining to the Executive regime has in later years come to be associated with the name of Jefferson, the father of the Democratic party, but a glance at the White House exhibit of his administration goes far. to prove that conception erroneous, at least so far as his table appointments were concerned. For as elegant a group of porcelain as the entire collection can boast, together with a time-yellowed family cook-book called "The Virginia Housewife," containing many choice recipes in Jefferson's own hand (among them the writer noted one for a Cabbage Pudding which had come to him from his French cook Petit), occupy an entire shelf. The accommodations in the President's House had become somewhat better by the time Mr. Jefferson moved in than they were during the Adams occupancy, and, in accord with his own personal tastes as well as with his deep-rooted conviction as to the political value of dinners, openhanded hospitality characterized the Mansion during his terms of office; a letter of ex-President Adams in later years declares: "I dined a large company once or twice a week, Jefferson dined a dozen every day." Humboldt, Tom Moore, Jerome Bonaparte, and Tom Paine were among the notables at his table. It has been stated that Jefferson was very fond of olives, figs, mulberries, crabs, venison, oysters, partridges, pineapples and light wines, his household records containing frequent entries of these delicacies. And there are also tales of small dinners in the mansion, when strict privacy was secured by means of a "dumbwaiter" at each guest's chair filled with all necessary articles like extra plates, knives and forks, finger bowls, etc., and by the additional means of a set of revolving shelves placed in the wall, evidently somewhat like the contrivance at the entrance to certain European convents of cloistered nuns to make possible unseen communication with the outside world, whereby fresh viands entered the room as the emptied plates swung around into the pantry. Being a widower, Jefferson's official table was at times presided over by his daughters, but more frequently by the wife of his Secretary of State, Mrs. Madison. Four pieces of a dinner set used upon his table are upon exhibition—a large covered soup-tureen, a large platter, a plate, and the cover of a broken vegetable dish. The porcelain is heavy, a piece of this set being described by Mrs. Earle as of Chinese manufacture of the type erroneously known as Lowestoft. The decoration consists of a wide outer rim and an inner border of deep blue diaper, accentuated by dainty gold bordering lines. The center of the flat pieces and the sides of the tureen and covers bear a blue outlined shield carrying thirteen stars and enclosing a gold letter "J." Above the shield is a blue and gold helmet drawn with visor closed. During Jefferson's term the celebrated De Tuyll silver was purchased in Paris, pieces of which bearing the faint ancestral markings are now in the original chest, and, as the writer observed, upon the sideboard of the private White House dining room. It is claimed that over three hundred pieces of this plate were purchased by Monroe, at Jefferson's request, from a Russian nobleman named De Tuyll, whose financial straits compelled the sacrifice.
James Madison, whose portrait (upon a Liverpool jug) may be found in a previous chapter of this volume, has been described as "a little, apple-faced man with a large brain and pleasant manners but no presence." His wife, "Dolly" Madison, however, "a fine, portly, buxom dame," amply supplied the qualities wanting in her husband, her career as mistress of the Mansion extending over practically four terms and eclipsing that of most of her contemporaries. Her first term as mistress in her own right was a continuous blaze of gayety, her toilets, and especially her Paris turbans of unheard-of daring and elegance, having been many times described. State papers show that Mrs. Madison selected a state dining set of porcelain and a quantity of plate for use in the President's Mansion. In the midst of this brilliancy occurred the second War with England, the British soldiers entering Washington in August, 1814, as Mrs. Madison fled leaving the table spread for a dinner prepared in honor of our supposedly victorious officers. A wagon had been hastily heaped with such valuables as could be carried, including the portrait of Washington which now holds the place of honor above the mantel in the Red Room of the White House. The British officers entered, and enjoyed the dinner before giving orders to fire the structure. William Lee, who later on had charge of refurnishing and redecorating the injured building, in his report tells how thorough was the work of vandalism: "There was no recourse in the remnants of glass, earthenware, china, linen, etc., of which scarcely an article would serve; indeed, we may say, there remained none of these articles fit for use." Nevertheless, a number of pieces of a beautiful set of French porcelain now known as the "Dolly Madison china" are claimed to have escaped the catastrophe, and two examples of it—a plate and a tea cup and saucer—are preserved in the collection of presidential ware. Another piece of the same set, which Mrs. Harrison after she became mistress of the Mansion found broken in three parts upon the White House pantry shelves and which she had carefully put together, is an exquisite punch-bowl about two feet in height, the bowl upheld by figures of the three Graces resting upon a standard. Restored to its original beauty, the punch-bowl now adorns a small table in the private White House dining room. The design which this set displays is a dainty one of blue and gold, its distinguishing characteristics being the wide bands filled with small gold dots and bordered with fine blue and gold lines, which encircle each specimen, together with the blue and gold shieldshaped decoration filled with dots which marks the center of the flat pieces. The cup has a deep gold band inside the rim. The two plates of another set in the Madison group upon exhibition in the Corridor are also of French porcelain, the deep buff rings carrying a series of wheel patterns outlined in black, alternating with a conventional branch-like pattern.
President Madison and his family did not again occupy the Mansion, being forced to transfer the Executive home to other quarters upon their return to the partially ruined Capital, and for a year they lived in the Octagon House wherein was ratified the Treaty of Ghent. This house is still preserved in its original form, and in a circular upper room the table upon which the historic document was signed, is shown to visitors. Mr. Monroe came into office as the final repairs were being put upon the President's House, the close of his administration seeing the semi-circular South Portico added to the original front of the mansion, as it appears in the illustration of a previous chapter of this volume, and naturally he impressed his taste upon the refurnishing. A large sum of money was appropriated by Congress, and the newly-elected president, accustomed as he was to life in France and being in sympathy with the prevailing Empire styles in houseinterior decoration, ordered in Paris the new furniture, plate, and ornaments of that decorative period. In the bills describing the contents of the 41 packages which arrived at Alexandria from France, one reads of curtains, screens, candelabra, candlesticks, mirrors, lamps, fauteuils, consoles, a "set of table china of gilded porcelain for 30 people," a "dessert service made by Dagoty, with amaranth border and five vignettes representing Strength, Agriculture, Commerce, Art, Science, with Arms of the United States in center," and many other dishes besides. The dining room being as yet unfit for use, state dinners were given in the East Room, which they called "the banqueting hall." The famous "surtout de table," or table plateau, which to this day is occasionally unpacked and placed upon the White House table, was also purchased in France by Monroe at a cost of 6000 francs—a piece of unwarranted extravagance in the eyes of his political critics. Mrs. Taft, in her charming book, "Recollections of Full Years," describes this table piece, which is 13 and one-half feet long and two feet wide, thus: "Based upon oblong plate glass mirrors, each about three feet in length, they (the separate pieces) stretch down the middle of the table, end to end, a perfect riot of festooned railing and graceful figures upholding crystal vases. Then there are large gilded candelabra, center vases and fruit dishes to match . . . appropriate to the ceremony with which a state dinner at the White House is usually conducted." Several of the ornamental clocks, pieces of statuary and bric-a-brac which Monroe purchased now adorn the mantels and cabinets of the state apartments of the White House. Of all the table china which the mansion boasted during this administration, however, but three pieces have as yet found their way back to grace the new collection—a plate and cup and saucer from a tea-set, and a plate from another set. The two match pieces carry a dainty scroll and lattice design in red, blue and gold, while the odd plate shows a dull orange rim in flat tone broken at the edges by six groups of white leaves; the center bears a bunch of flowers.
The John Quincy Adams group, as may be seen in the accompanying illustration, is made up of three tall-stemmed English wine glasses of differing size and form, two salt cellars of Meissen ware bearing the familiar onion pattern, and a dinner plate which was used at state dinners during his term of office. The plate is of French porcelain, the flat rim carrying a decoration consisting of five small panels of pale lavender outlined in gold enclosing two white interwoven figures resembling sea-horses, these alternating with a wheel pattern and scroll in gold. A large gold rosette marks the center.
The disturbing events of Andrew Jackson's terms of office, from the "Pretty Peggy Eaton affair" which disrupted his cabinet at the beginning, to the mammoth 1400 pound gift cheese which, standing in the White House vestibule and served to all comers to his farewell entertainment, gave forth an odor, not of sanctity, but, as one who was present remarked, "like that to which the mephitic gas over Avernus must be faint and inocuous," are well known matters of history. The East Room, which had previously been lighted with candles held in candlesticks nailed to the wall, was now fitted with chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and gleaming with glass prisms. Large gilt-framed mirrors, chairs to match covered with damask, rich window hangings, a Brussels carpet of pronounced pattern, and bouquets of artificial flowers set in painted vases, transformed the room into a reflection of the mode of the period. Jackson also purchased a quantity of tableware, for we read from the accounts covering expenditures for the White House in 1833: "One set of French china, for dinner with the American eagle, $1,500;" "a dessert set, blue and gold, with eagle, $1000;" besides plates, cups and saucers, glass, plate, etc., etc. It may be of interest to know that President Jackson purchased his glassware in Pittsburgh, as Congress had ordered by Act of 1826, but for his porcelains and silks he sent to France. But alas! the freshness of these new furnishings was not to endure, for the mobs of visitors of all ranks of life who, with a practice of democracy exceeding that of Jefferson's day, thronged the receptions of the "Hero of New Orleans," in their boisterous efforts to secure the cake and punch which the waiters were serving upset the trays and deluged the curtains, cushions and carpet, while bits of china and glass were ground underfoot. Like Jefferson, President Jackson was a widower, the lady who presided over his official home being the wife of his secretary (who was Mrs. Jackson's nephew), Mrs. Emily Tennessee Donelson. The first baby said to have been born in the Mansion was the secretary's child, Mary Emily Donelson, and it was her daughter, Miss Mary R. Wilcox, who placed as a memorial to her mother the present interesting exhibit of china, glass, and plate in the White House collection. It includes a two-branched silver candelabra which was presented to General Jackson by Tammany Hall upon the occasion of a visit to that organization, one side of the pedestal bearing the name Andrew Jackson, and the other the inscription: "Our Federal Union; It Must Be Preserved." There are also two round openwork fruit-compotes of white and gold, a silver tea knife, a red Bohemian glass flower-vase, a finger bowl, a cut glass decanter and four wine glasses, in the group. An interesting recent addition is the coffee cup and saucer to be seen in the foreground of the illustration, which was commonly used by the President at breakfast during his first administration. The cup is large and flaring at the rim, the gold band being much worn away. We read that Jackson found great solace from the troubles which beset his office in smoking a pipe, sitting by himself in the big south room of the second story and puffing the smoke up the chimney because, as he explained to a visitor, Emily Donelson disliked the smell of tobacco. It perhaps brings the man and his time a little nearer to us to look upon his pipe-bowl of coarse green clay which forms a part of the exhibit.
The single article commemorating Martin Van Buren's occupancy of the historic mansion, an elegant silver water pitcher about ten inches in height, is curiously suggestive of the criticisms of extravagance made by his political enemies, which somehow Jackson seemed to have escaped. But it would appear only natural that a man of Van Buren's type, a bon vivant habituated to luxury, should feel the necessity of thoroughly renovating the mansion after eight years of a regime such as the foregoing had been. The carpets were taken up and cleaned, the furniture was repaired, and much redecorating was done. Quantities of wine glasses and fluted decanters, "blue-edged dishes, blue-printed plates, gold band china coffees, willow plates and dishes," were purchased. The "surtout," or "pictured tray," as it was contemptuously dubbed, was "dressed up" at a cost of $75. Altogether, nearly $27,000 were spent, and a critic in Congress accused the President of maintaining a "royal establishment," in a "palace as splendid as that of the Caesars and as richly adorned as the proudest Asiatic mansion," the special objects of attack being upon one occasion the silver and gold plate upon the table and the large number of spittoons in the halls and parlors! The silver pitcher was presented to the collection by Mrs. Helen Singleton Green of Columbia, South Carolina, whose aunt, Mrs. Angelica Singleton Van Buren, was mistress of the White House during President Van Buren's administration, and from whom she inherited the relic.
William Henry Harrison occupied the office of President but one month, and his wife on account of ill health was unable to leave her Ohio home to accompany him to Washington at the time of his inaugural. A plate and a cup and saucer which had been presented to General Harrison at a previous time represent this administration in the White House Collection. They were sent by Miss Mary Reynolds of Washington, District of Columbia, whose mother was a granddaughter of President Harrison. They are of English manufacture, the cream colored surfaces being decorated in black with landscape scenes, which are possibly intended for types of our western country spaces which witnessed his Indian campaigns. An interesting ceramic memento of the lively Harrison political campaign is to be found in the old English pieces of Staffordshire pottery which picture the famous log-cabin, together with the cider barrel which so popularly figured beside it.
President Tyler, who was the first Vice-President to receive promotion to the Presidency in mid-term, is called to our minds by the three objects, a porcelain plate and a pair of Sheffield plate fruit baskets, which make up his exhibit. The fruit baskets are a loan from Judge D. Gardiner Tyler of Williamsburg, Virginia, and are of a peculiar design of twisted cord. They are of special interest from the fact that they were sent, among other valuable articles, by Mr. Tyler in the troublous times of 1862 from his home on the James River to Richmond, Va., for safe keeping, and were burned in the partial destruction of that city by the Northern soldiers in the year 1865. None of the silver remains upon the body of the ware, and both standards have been melted off. The dinner plate is of French porcelain, the rim decoration being a design of wheat and stalk in gold outline, and in the center a bunch of nasturtiums in natural tints upon a chocolate-colored ground. The plate is loaned to the collection by Mrs. William M. Ellis, of Shawsville, Va., the youngest daughter of President Tyler.
The illustration here given of the President Polk relics presents but a partial display of the White House group, the pieces of greatest beauty and interest in it being the tall, diamondshaped, lattice work fruit-compote and the plate and cup and saucer of a state set. The design upon these pieces is composed of pink, gold-bordered bands broken with vignettes enclosing brilliantly plumaged birds, the plate carrying also a bunch of violet morning glories in the center. They are of old Dresden manufacture, and were presented by Mrs. George W. Fall of Nashville, Tenn., a niece of Mrs. Polk, who is the fortunate possessor of many of the personal relics of the Polk administration. A curious old-time finger and mouth bowl, with a separate compartment for each member to be cleansed, a deep blue Bohemian glass goblet, a small glass vase, and a cut glass wine glass, may also be seen in the illustration; while the White House Collection includes, in addition, two plates of elaborate designs, each one bearing the United States shield in color, and several pieces of white and colored glass.
During President Polk's term of office occurred the war with Mexico, resulting in the annexation of California and the great southwestern area of the United States, and it was a natural consequence that his successor should be a hero of that brilliant campaign. General Zachary Taylor, dubbed by his soldiers "Old Rough and Ready," and his family left their Baton Rouge home with reluctance to take up their residence in the White House, bringing with them, it is said, only a family negro servant, a favorite dog, and the horse the General had ridden through the Mexican War. During the year and a half of the Taylor regime, which was suddenly ended by his death, the East Room was again refurbished to suit the tastes of its good-housekeeping occupants. A new carpet was purchased for it, its walls were redecorated, and gas replaced the candles in the crystal chandeliers. An entire shelf in the White House Collection is filled with Taylor relics, a portion of which were presented by the great-grandchildren of the President, the children of Captain John Taylor Wood, the President's grandson, and another portion by his granddaughter, Mrs. Walter R. Stauffer of New Orleans, La. No porcelain is included in the group, which displays a black enameled brooch containing a braided lock of President Taylor's hair, which was once worn by his wife, a decanter and three wine glasses, a pair of silver candlesticks, a pair of Mexican spurs, and the gold head to a walking stick. The unexpired term of President Taylor was filled by Vice-President Millard Fillmore. The Fillmore representation, which by the way it is hoped may some day be augmented by other interesting pieces, is now made up of a large deep-blue Staffordshire platter, a vegetable dish decorated in the green shade of the late period of Staffordshire, and a blue and white Canton soup plate, the gifts of Mrs. E. B. Terry and Miss Cornelia Burtis of Buffalo.
One of the distinctive exhibits in the collection is that of the Franklin Pierce administration, being a large group of the beautiful red-banded porcelain which graced the White House table during his term of office. The most striking piece, as is usual in the earlier groups, is the fruit-compote, this one being of the round, lattice work variety, with bands of the rich deep red which characterize the set encircling the standard and the bowl. A graceful gravy-boat and tray, two plates, a covered oval vegetable dish, a tea cup and saucer and a preserve dish complete the group in the collection, which vies in beauty and in popular interest with the Jefferson and the Lincoln exhibits. It is also of interest to recall the fact that to President Pierce the field of American letters is no doubt indebted for much of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author was a classmate and personal friend of the President, who gave him the appointment of consul at Liverpool, and thereby enabled him to make those European studies with the rich result of which the world is familiar.
James Buchanan was a bachelor, which possibly may have something to do with the meagerness of his display now in the White House, three pieces of porcelain only marking his administration. One of them is a plate which belonged to a Sevres banquet set purchased by him from an early French minister to this country, and which was presented to the collection by the President's nephew and ward, Mr. James Buchanan Henry of Annapolis, Md., to whom it descended. The plate has a deep pinkish lavender rim outlined on either edge with heavy bands of gold, while the center carries tall growing tulips and a drooping tree set upon a terrace overlooking distant hills. A tea cup and saucer and a small coffee cup and saucer complete this exhibit.
With the exception of the Roosevelt porcelain, no other exhibit elicits so many expressions of admiration from passing visitors as does the Lincoln group, which was selected from the remains of a state set chosen by Mrs. Lincoln. It is of Haviland make, and wide bands of crimson-lilac edged with lines of plain gold and of dots, together with a spirited representation of the United States Arms in bright colors upon a gold-clouded ground, characterize the decoration. The dish-forms are likewise arresting, the plates being scalloped, the water pitcher graceful, and the compote high and imposing. The little custard-cup is unique in the collection, and a large punch bowl which lack of space does not now permit of exhibiting will be added as soon as more commodious quarters are prepared. Large quantities of this set, most of it damaged by breakage, have survived to grace private collections of historic porcelains, the Dickins loan collection in the National Museum in Washington, D. C, possessing a large number of Lincoln pieces. Vice-President Andrew Johnson, who served out Lincoln's unexpired term of office as President of the United States, is as yet without representation in the White House Collection of Presidential china.
A peculiar interest attaches to the President Grant exhibit of specimens of a state set ordered for his administration, for it is the first one which attempts to incorporate in the decorative design a motif wholly characteristic of this country. While the porcelain is of French manufacture, each piece carries a natural spray of American wild flowers, a wide variety of our common flora being reproduced. The encircing bands are of buff color, edged with gold lines and broken with a small colored reproduction of the United States shield. The old-time fruit-compote marks the end of that style of dish in the exhibit. It has been stated that upon the occasion of Nellie Grant's we White House, an additional quantity of this set, min and flowers, was ordered.
Perhaps no more striking example of the popula period will it be possible to find among any group of r than is to be seen in the specimens of porcelain selecl state set which was ordered for the White House by the largest set, it is claimed, ever brought into the Exe sion, Mrs. Hayes having an additional sideboard mac modate it. The Hayes group is never overlooked b and the comments one hears upon the decorations v; art education of the beholder. The porcelain is L both forms and decorations were designed by the Ami Theodore Davis, his name together with a colored i of the Great Seal of the Republic being put upon the original pieces. Here is realism in decorative art < Flaubert, one may venture to suggest, transmuted int The forms are varied to suit special uses, while the design embraces no less ambitious a field than the repr the flora and fauna of the United States, the present ( ing been selected largely from the latter division. 1 honor is held by a large turkey platter bearing what at appears to be a genuine barnyard fowl, strutting in a ered field, against a Turneresque sky, with rows of Th time trees marking the far horizon. "A turkey! beautiful!" exclaimed a small boy in the writer's hearii no doubt connoting in his mind the annual Americar game-plate beside the platter, with wild deer roamir between Swiss-like mountains, calls to mind a Lan Rosa Bonheur canvas, while the small plate which holds a snowshoe in raised gold upon a pink grounc designed to heighten the enjoyment of ices served upo shell-shaped plates bear ocean scenes, while the small and saucer are odd in conception, the saucer having a ra stem in which to set the cup. The handled dish and tn a dainty seashell decoration in natural tints is perhap: modest and attractive of the group. Naturally, no display of wine glasses marks this cold water administration.
The few months which James A. Garfield and his family spent in the historic mansion saw no additions to the White House table service, but in the year 1907 Mrs. Garfield sent to the collection at Washington three pieces of a Haviland dinner set which for many years had been in the family—a low fruit dish, a salad bowl and a plate. The buff colored band upon them is edged with a conventional design in flat gold, and each piece is marked with the letter "G." A well-painted bunch of grapes fills the center of the fruit dish. Chester A. Arthur, who took up the reins of government upon President Garfield's tragic death, was, like President Van Buren, fond of the luxuries of life and of entertaining, and during his regime the White House received a strong impress of his personal taste. Twenty-four wagon loads of furniture and other White House furnishings which he considered "decayed" were sold at public auction, 5000 persons attending, the bidding spirited and the prices high. A motley array was thus disposed of—the entire furniture of the East Room, carpets, parlor sets, mattresses, chandeliers, bedroom sets, tables, lace curtains, lead piping, stoves, etc., etc., the lot realizing about $6000. Under the direction of Mr. Louis Tiffany of New York, the state apartments were then freshly decorated and refurnished, the opalescent screen of Tiffany glass, which remained until the Roosevelt day, being at this time set between the long corridor and the vestibule. President Arthur was fond of music, of cozy dinners, and of intimate social entertainments, and the private dining room which he regularly used was made elegant according to the ideas of the day, with heavy gold paper, hangings of pomegranate plush, and crimson-shaded lights. The new president had another sideboard made to match the one that was ordered by Mrs. Hayes, and upon it were displayed specimens of the Hayes set of porcelain. The tableware which he himself added, if one may judge from the plates which identify his administration, was in keeping with the general decorative scheme he introduced. Vivid color and large patterns mark the decorations, one plate bearing a single rose branch in the center around which butterflies are hovering. Another shows two cherubs sporting in a field of daisies, while the surface of still another is entirely covered with decorative motives verging toward the center, the colors being deep blue and pink.
Before Mrs. Cleveland entered the old mansion as a bride and its mistress, a general housecleaning had taken place, including much redecorating, cleaning of carpets and repainting. A large order for a service of glassware, about fifty dozen pieces, the records show, was given. Comparatively little new porcelain was purchased for the table, that which Mrs. Cleveland selected being of simple and exquisite taste, the examples in the collection eliciting much admiration from visitors. The plates are of Wedgwood and Minton manufacture, the plain centers bordered with narrow bands of color, scarlet, green, robin's egg blue, etc., upon the outer rim. One dainty plate carries a narrow wreath of tiny daisies in white enamel outlined with a narrow pink line and bordered on either side with a conventional pattern in raised gold. Upon their return to Washington for the second term, the Clevelands for a great part of the time occupied a suburban home, the administrative offices of the Government having encroached to such an extent upon the living quarters that the White House was inadequate for family life. The suggestion was made at this time to provide a separate building for the Executive Offices, but nothing was done in the matter, however, until Mr. Roosevelt came into power.
Like the Cleveland exhibit, that of the Benjamin Harrison administration declares a taste simple and refined. Mrs. Harrison, being artistic and original, designed the decorations for the new china herself, using a combination of the goldenrod (which she wished to have adopted as the national flower) and Indian corn, which appears in flat gold over the underglaze blue rims of two of the plates, and over the outer white rim of the center plate, as they are arranged in the illustration. A row of golden stars lines the inside of the plates, while upon each center is emblazoned the United States Seal in color. Three pieces of exquisite glass are included in this exhibit.
The McKinley administration is represented in the collection by an interesting exhibit of three plates and two cups and saucers, selected from different sets which the family used in the White House. One plate has a bluish green rim overlaid with a pattern in flat gold, another is decorated with Dresden-like festoons of flowers, while the third displays a row of large pink roses upon the rim and a conventional gold pattern in the center. One cup and saucer matches the plate first described, while the second carries a row of pink rosebuds as a motif.
Whatever comments of praise or curiosity the other exhibits may draw from the stream of visitors from all parts of the country who pass through the Lower Corridor, one hears little but unstinted praise for the Roosevelt china, even from the less discerning. While engaged in making a study of the collection, it was the writer's pleasure to linger near the cabinet which contains this group and listen to the remarks expressed with no fear of lese majeste. "Very plain china," a woman ventured, who evidenty would prefer upon her own table the more showy specimens she had just passed on her way to the glories of the East Room above. "Yes, but he is a plain man," a masculine voice at her side explained. "She had it made in Paris 1" volunteered a knowing one. "Plain and elegant" were often upon the lips. One enthusiastic admirer of the ex-President exclaimed with fervor: "The Roosevelt china is all right!" Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt were fond of and justly appreciated the possibilities of the White House as a national home for this great Republic, and to them is due much praise for its complete restoration to suitable service, as well as to the historic form of its original designers. So thorough was the work of restoration and improvement during their regime that in all probability the old mansion, so indelibly impressed with the intimate and varied associations of more than a century of public life in a newly established country, will remain for many years in its present state. In the general scheme of restoration, it was but fitting that a distinctive table service of porcelain should be included. The subject was given careful consideration by Mrs. Roosevelt, who, out of a large number of designs submitted by noted factories and distinguished decorators, selected the simple Colonial pattern upon Wedgwood ware which the illustration presents. The design is traced in flat gold and each piece carries a correct representation of the Great Seal of the United States, as it was adopted in the year 1782. As may be observed in some of the other exhibits, peculiar liberties have at times been taken in the presentation of this national emblem, but the Seal as it appears upon the Roosevelt china may be studied as correct. The Roosevelt design is protected by patent and copyright for the exclusive use of the Executive Mansion.
As has already been stated, Mrs. Taft admired the china of her predecessor in power, and merely filled up broken sets to a number necessary for 100 covers. She enjoyed using the old historic pieces in the mansion at small dinners and luncheons, there being a sufficient quantity of plates of the Lincoln set upon the shelves of the mezzanine floor of the White House pantry to serve a course for thirty persons. The present Wilson administration likewise follows precedent in the use of the Roosevelt porcelain.
(From The Blue-China Book by Ada Walker Camehl, 1916.)
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