"The American Soup of the XVth Century" soup plate is a design from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Porcelain Service. Porcelain with enamels and gilt decoration. The colors were applied using chromolithographic and decalcomania processes. Afterwards, decorators painted the plate with enamel colors to add shading and to enhance the design. Finally, the edges were gilt. The shape of the soup plate was modeled after the mountain laurel, with slight points indicating the tips of the flower petal. The design features a Native American man reclining upon a ledge of rocks, his calumet in hand, and waiting as steam rises from a water-filled cavity in the rock. Nearby lie blackened stones, likely heated in a smoky fire outside of the scene, were used to heat the water in the pot-hole. His bow-case rests beside him and the deer he recently has slain for his meal. He looks over the edge at a waterfall, which forms a mist that creates a rainbow. Pot-holes are commonly seen in ledge rocks along the coast, as well as in similar formations in the interior of the United States.