We had one correct guess from our Alaskan reader Marjorie McLaren.
August’s What Is It appears to be a place setting of china in the style of the presidential china selected by Mary Todd Lincoln for her husband, President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865 term). It was the custom for each president to choose their own presidential china. The Lincoln presidential china was the first to be chosen entirely by a First Lady. The white porcelain for the Lincoln presidential china was purchased from a company in Limoges, France and hand painted in New York City. Distinctive features of the Lincoln china are the hand-painted purplish/magenta border in a stylish color of the time called solferino and the patriotic design in the center of the plate. In the center an eagle holds arrows and an olive branch in its talons and stands on an American shield emblem. A ribbon with the motto E Pluribus Unum floats through the clouds below the eagle. The design is based on a sample that had been created for President Pierce (1853-1857), and was ultimately rejected by him. Mary Todd Lincoln’s change was to replace the blue border with the solferino border.
The striking design proved popular and reproduction pieces have been made in the US since 1876. Few pieces of the original set remain, as it is rumored that many were broken or stolen during Lincoln’s presidential years.
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