Dish, Serving

Description

Small white oval porcelain dish. The long sides of the dish follow the oval form, though slightly irregular. Along these sides are two thin black lines and a light-green stripe 4/16" wide in between them. The light-green line follows the form of the dish, but its outline is not perfectly straight. Underneath this border, along one side, there is light-green transfer-printed text, in all caps, which reads "SHAKERS MT. LEBANON N.Y.". The font of the text has a white outline to give the letters a three-dimensional quality. The short ends of the dish are cut away slightly and molded. On each side hand-painted black lines emphasizes the shape of the sides, outlining its form and extending into the bottom of the dish with three black floral branches. The bottom of the dish has three hand-painted floral decorations. One is a floral sprig with a green stem and two blue petals. Another floral design also has a blue flower with a yellow floral disc and two small flowers with two petals each all extending from a green stem with leaves along with a brown branch. The third floral decoration is also made up of a brown branch and a green stem with leaves, but has a three orange flowers. One has five heart-shaped petals around a yellow floral disc, one with one heart-shaped petal with an oval petal on either side, and a smaller flower with a single heart-shaped petal.

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.