Collections: Decorative Arts: Cup and Saucer

21:33 08/16/2008

Hi spiceytaco -- we're working on it! We'd like to have color images of everything, too. Bringing art to the studio and getting it photographed takes more time and skill than scanning existing negatives, so we're doing both.

posted by debwythe

01:41 08/12/2008

better picture pleez

posted by spiceytaco

09:35 08/03/2008

hard to tell in blackandwhite

posted by spiceytaco

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Cup and Saucer

Theodore R. Davis was a Brooklyn artist known mainly for his lively engravings for Harper's Weekly. In 1880 he supplied designs to Haviland & Company for the extensive White House dinner service for President Rutherford B. Hayes, including this cup and saucer. The decoration on the service is for the most part naturalistically rendered scenes of animals. The coffee cups and dessert plates, however, are far more inventive and up-to-date stylistically in their amusing adaptation of a Japanese-inspired bamboo design.

• Designer: Theodore R. Davis
• Maker: Haviland & Company, 1842-present
• Medium: Porcelain
• Place Made: Limoges, France
• Dates: Patented May 10, 1880
• Dimensions: (a) Cup: 2 1/2 x 2 7/8 x 2 1/8 in. (6.4 x 7.3 x 5.4 cm) (b) Saucer: 5/8 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 in. (1.6 x 12.1 x 12.1 cm)
• Markings: Four printed marks on bottom of both cup and saucer: (1) In blue, "PATENTED / AUGUST 10th 1880"; (2) in orange, "FABRIQUE PAR / HAVILAND & CO. / d'apres les dessins / DE / THEDORE. R. DAVIS."; (3) in green, "H & Co."; (4) in orange, "TD" designer's initials in script.
• Signature:
• Collections: Decorative Arts
• Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, Expanding Horizons, 5th Floor
• Accession Number: 1994.106a-b
• Credit Line: H. Randolph Lever Fund
• Image: Overall, 1994.106a-b_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Theodore R. Davis. Cup and Saucer, Patented May 10, 1880. Porcelain, (a) Cup: 2 1/2 x 2 7/8 x 2 1/8 in. (6.4 x 7.3 x 5.4 cm) (b) Saucer: 5/8 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 in. (1.6 x 12.1 x 12.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, H. Randolph Lever Fund, 1994.106a-b (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1994.106a-b_bw.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Cup and saucer, porcelain. (a) Cup with white body and ivory exterior glaze. Cylindrical, with small bulge towards bottom. Applied decoration of bamboo stalk wraps halfway around the cup, with top leaf forming the handle. Stalk is green, with naturalistic modeling and gold highlights. Three irregular gold stripes, from thin to thickest, encircle the cup from bulge to base. (b) Saucer, with matching body, glaze, and applied decoration. Bamboo stalk forms inner ridge to hold cup. On saucer bottom, foot is painted gold. Outer rim has same irregular gold stripes as cup base. Condition: Excellent, gold slightly worn on saucer rim.