Exhibition Guide

Pieces from the Hayes Presidential Service

  • Audio

    Plates for the President's table

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  • Audio

    Some personal favorites

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  • Audio

    A surprising turn on one plate

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Additional Images

Art Object Info

These porcelain are part of an elaborate set of state china designed for President Rutherford Hayes. Guided by watercolor images of American flora and fauna by artist-adventurer Theodore Davis, French artisans decorated individual pieces by hand. Davis developed novel shapes for many of the plates in the set, and production methods used by Haviland were technologically advanced. Davis’ choice of native birds, animals, and plants representing habitats across the United States symbolically united the recently war-torn nation on the President’s dinner table. The Hayes china remains unique among American presidential state dinner services.

Medium:
Hard-paste porcelain with overglaze enamel and gilt decoration
Size:
Date:
designed 1879–1880, in production 1880–1886
Credit: Various; see slideshow. BMA

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Art Object Info

These porcelain are part of an elaborate set of state china designed for President Rutherford Hayes. Guided by watercolor images of American flora and fauna by artist-adventurer Theodore Davis, French artisans decorated individual pieces by hand. Davis developed novel shapes for many of the plates in the set, and production methods used by Haviland were technologically advanced. Davis’ choice of native birds, animals, and plants representing habitats across the United States symbolically united the recently war-torn nation on the President’s dinner table. The Hayes china remains unique among American presidential state dinner services.

Medium:
Hard-paste porcelain with overglaze enamel and gilt decoration
Size:
Date:
designed 1879–1880, in production 1880–1886
Credit: Various; see slideshow. BMA