These plates are decorated with native birds, animals, and plants representing habitats across the United States. They were designed for the White House during the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893). Guided by watercolor images of American flora and fauna by artist-illustrator Theodore Davis, French ceramicists painted and gilt each piece by hand. Produced just after the American Civil War (1861-1865), Davis's representation of both northern and southern species symbolically united the recently divided nation on the President's dining table and through rare copies, such as most of these examples, made for private households. Davis based the shape of this plate on a wild apple leaf. Each of 12 fruit plates is decorated differently. This one shows the locust tree, which Davis praised as a source of timber, noting that a specimen was sent to Europe during the reign of Henry IV of France.