Dish, Serving
Serving dish inscribed "Shakers Mt. Lebanon N.Y.”
12/1886
Description
Large oval porcelain dish. Along the inner rim is a border of two thin black lines with a light green stripe 6/16" wide in between them. Just below the border along one length of the dish there is transfer-printed light green text which reads "SHAKERS MT. LEBANON N.Y.". The font of the text has white space outlining the letters to give them a three-dimensionality. There are three hand-painted decorations made up of flowers, a brown branch and dual-green stems and leaves. To the left of "SHAKERS" is one of the floral decorations with a flower with eight blue petals around a yellow center and a smaller flower with two oval petals, one slightly larger than the other. On the bottom of the dish is another floral decoration with two orange flowers: one with seven petals around a yellow center and the other, smaller flower, has one tripartite petal with an oval petal on each side. The third floral design has one purple flower with ten oval petals and a smaller flower with just two oval petals.
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.
New York Mount Lebanon Church Family
