Theodore Russell Davis and Haviland & Co.
“Snow Shoe” Ice Cream Plate
1879
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Porcelain, enamel, gilt, 7 1/4 × 6 3/4 in. (18.4 × 17.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Jonathan W. Kolker, Baltimore, in Memory of Irving and Rosa Kolker
Object Number
1999.134
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 the American presidential state dinner services.
Exercising his sense of narrative, Davis chose to have ice cream served on a plate representing a Canadian snowshoe on an icy snowbank at sunset. The vivid color of this and other pieces were carefully selected to look attractive in the evening in gaslit rooms.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1999; Jonathan W. Kolker, Baltimore, MD by descent, 1980s; Irving Mason (1895-1957) and Rosa Jacobson Kolker (1907-1998), Baltimore, MD by purchase
Former Prov - check files
Estate of Evalyn Walsh McClean
Former Prov - check files
Estate of Evalyn Walsh McClean
AMW Reinstallation 2014
American Wing Rotations 2020
American Wing Rotations 2021
American Wing Rotations 2022
American Wing Rotations 2023
American Wing Rotations 2024
American Wing Rotations 2025
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014.
Haviland and Co., The White House Porcelain Service, Designs by an American Arts, illustrating exclusively American Fauna and Flora, 1879.
Meredith Galleries. "The estates of Evalyn Walch McLean and J. R. McLean by order of judge Thurman Arnols and American Security Trust," Meredith Gallieries 1948.
https://search.worldcat.org/title/1474798634
Russell, Francis. "The Shadow of Blooming Grove, Warren G. Harding in His Times," New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968, p. 448 (this is considered a rare book, may be hard to find)
Klapthor, Margaret Brown. "Official White House China: 1789 to the Present," Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975.
"Evalyn Walsh McLean papers, 1874-1948," Library of Congress, MSS32318 (information about Evalyn Walsh McLean in summary)
Meredith Galleries. "The estates of Evalyn Walch McLean and J. R. McLean by order of judge Thurman Arnols and American Security Trust," Meredith Gallieries 1948.
https://search.worldcat.org/title/1474798634
Russell, Francis. "The Shadow of Blooming Grove, Warren G. Harding in His Times," New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968, p. 448 (this is considered a rare book, may be hard to find)
Klapthor, Margaret Brown. "Official White House China: 1789 to the Present," Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975.
"Evalyn Walsh McLean papers, 1874-1948," Library of Congress, MSS32318 (information about Evalyn Walsh McLean in summary)
Inscribed: None
Markings: On underside: - Great seal [American eagle with spread wings and Seal of United States in polychrome enamels]; - "FABRIQUÉ PAR / HAVILAND & Co./ d’aprés les dessins / DE" (stamped in orange-red) above "Theo: R. Davis." (Facsimile signature in black); - “LIMOGES/HAVILAND & Co.” in brown above a cipher made of the artist’s initials “T.D.” formed from a red, white and blue pennant suspended from a crossbow with the date “1879” in brown; - "H & Co." double-underscored (stamped factory mark in green)
On View at the BMA
