Plate, Dessert

Description

Small porcelain plate. Around the interior rim of the plate are two thin black lines and a light-green stripe 5/16" wide. Underneath the border is light-green transfer-printed text, in all caps, which reads "SHAKERS MT. LEBANON N.Y." echoing the curve of the plate. The font of the text has a white outline giving the letters a three-dimensional quality when viewed up close. The plate has a recessed center. The plate is decorated with three hand-painted floral designs each with a brown branch, a green stem with dual-green leaves and flowers. One floral design has two pink flowers with floral discs and a third with three petals. Another floral design has two orange flowers, one with multiple petals around a yellow floral disc. The floral design with blue flowers is distinctly different. Where the other floral designs are predominantly leaves, this one appears to have flower petals instead, for a total of 11 flowers, with just a few leaves. The underside has throw lines.

Notes

On October 12, 1886 Benjamin Gates, Cornelia French, and Mary Hazard of the Church family traveled to New York City to order plates from Union Porcelain Works. On February 20, 1887 a note in Anna Dodgsons journal refers to new plates with "Shaker & c". These are the only dishes marked with a community name.