Inaugural Luncheon to Use China Pattern of President Abraham Lincoln

Hello from Ross and Pinot the Blog Dog! Recently we saw on CNN some information about the china that will be used at the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon. The service will be replicas of the pattern used during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and features the American bald eagle with the United States Coat of Arms. The illustration here is from CNN and the Senate Inaugural web site. We thought we’d see if we could find a little more information for you.

 

A wonderful reference is the book, Official White House China: 1789 to the Present, 2nd edition, by Margaret Brown Klapthor, published in 1999 by The Barra Foundation, Inc., in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. We checked online and found used copies available at amazon.com and alibris.com, and they’re quite expensive!  But the information and photographs in the book are truly remarkable.

According to Klapthor, although President and Mrs. Lincoln entered the White House in 1861 under the cloud of impending war, Congress had nonetheless set aside substantial funds for furnishing their new home.  Mrs. Lincoln felt there was too little china left from the service used in the administration of President Franklin Pierce to set a formal dinner, and embarked on a shopping trip to New York and Philadelphia to remedy the situation.

As Klapthor notes in her book, the May 16, 1861, issue of The New York Daily Tribune reported that Mrs. Lincoln visited the “establishments of Lord & Taylor and Messrs. E.V. Haughwout & Co.  At the latter establishment she ordered a splendid dinner service for the White House in ‘Solferino’ and gold with the arms of the United States emblazoned on each piece.”  This same firm, under the business name Haughwout & Dailey, had sold a dinner service to President Pierce.  Those plates featured a blue band; Mrs. Lincoln selected “Solferino,” a bright, purplish color in the palette she preferred not only for her home decorations, but also for her personal attire.

No backstamp appears on the Lincoln china purchased in 1861, other than marks on two bon-bon pieces.  According to Klapthor, it is likely that “blank” porcelain for the service was produced by the Haviland factory in Limoges, France, and supplied to E.V. Haughwout & Co., who would have had the pieces decorated by hand in New York City.  The set so delighted Mrs. Lincoln that she ordered one for her personal use.  When President Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, Klapthor notes that The New York World newspaper attacked Lincoln bitterly, accusing him of padding the bill for the official dinner service with the cost of the one used by his wife.  “Honest Abe” made payment for the second service from his own pocket.

Klapthor writes that the “royal purple,” or “Solferino” set originally purchased by Mrs. Lincoln in 1861 was augmented in subsequent administrations - first by President U.S. Grant in 1873, then by President Chester Arthur in 1884, and finally, by President Grover Cleveland in 1894.

Don’t forget to visit the Replacements, Ltd. web site, and e-mail Pinot the Blog Dog and me at ross.howell@replacements.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Ross Howell

Comments

[Kaley]

I LOVE Honst Abe(Aberham Lincon)