Bowl, Serving
Serving bowl inscribed "Shakers Mt. Lebanon N.Y.”
12/1886
Description
Large round white footed bowl. Along the outer edge of the foots base is a thin black line. The foot also has wheel lines above and below the short stem. Around the inside rim of the bowl there are two thin black lines with a light green stripe 7/16" wide in between them. Underneath this border 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 lettering a three-dimensional quality. In addition to this there are three naturalistic hand-painted floral decorations consisting of flowers and brown and green branches with leaves. Below "SHAKERS", there is one floral design with two large blue flowers with yellow floral discs and two smaller flowers made up of two petals each. Next to the blue floral decoration is one with orange flowers. This second floral design has two flowers with five petals each extending from yellow floral discs and a third smaller orange flower. The third floral design is the largest with four pink flowers with yellow floral discs and a smaller fifth flower depicted from the side. The exterior of the bowl excluding the base is plain white.
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.