The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-09
WHITE HOUSE AUCTION
COMING SALE OF PRESIDENTIAL
 CHINA AND FURNITURE.
Replaced by Roosevelt Set-Rem- nants of official Pottery Purchased for the Grants, the Arthurs, the
 Harrisions to Be Sold,

complete service of official queensware | with the firm of Josiah Wedgewood &
 Sons, Stoke-upon-Trent, England, by the | White House authorities, has attracted a
 great deal of attention and interest, not
 alone among the people of this city but throughout the United States. The prob- abilities are that on the arrival of the | new Roosevelt set there will be a sale | of White House property, at which a | large number of pieces of the Lincoln, | Grant and Hayes sets will be sold and | collectors, bargain hunters, and society people are on the qui vive of expectancy looking forward to an official announce ment of the coming auction, which prob- | ably will take place the latter part of | next February or early in March. The l sale will include the old White House 1 china. furniture, carpets, and all man. | ner of interior furnishings.
 | The Roosevelt set is the first service | of official queensware that his been or | dered since 1876. and will be used, not as
 the everyday service of the President and | his family but only for state dinners. | banquets, and occasions of ceremony. For | everyday use President Roosevelt follows l the example of other Presidents in using | plain. ordinary china, such as one would l buy in the best stores of the capital. The | last official china service purchased was | the famous Hayes set which was made | by the Havilands of Limoges, France, in | 1876, since which date the steward of the White House. on the occasion of state | dinners, has been obliged to draw upon the remnants of the Lincoln, Grant, and l Hayes sets to complete the requirements of the table.
 Upward of 5000 Pieces.
 Colonel Theodore A. Bingham. the GUS
 todian of the White House. in hi report of the care and maintenance of the Pres idential mansion for 1901, states that at the end of that year there were 14S pieces of the Lincoln, 125 pieces of the Grant. 31 of the Hayes, 30 of the Arthur, 1,745 of the Cleveland, 459 of the Harrison, and 321 of the Mckinley sets remaining in the White House, which, since the time of 1876. have constituted the official queens | ware of that institution.
 The reader, in view of the statement that the Hayes set was the last official china service ordered for the White | House, will doubtless be at loss to un- | derstand what Colonel Bingham means by I the Arthur, Harrison, Cleveland and Me Kinley sets, and. consequently, word | of explanation Is here necessary. Con- | trary to the general opinion there Is not. | and never has been. an official set for every President With all the care that | is exercised in the handling of the official china, pieces of 1t will break and wear out | from time to time, so that when President | Arthur became the Chief Executive, he
 was obliged to purchase some very fine | queensware from local dealers to fill out | the gaps in the Hayes set caused by wear
 and breakage. This china was. of course of very high order, but not official in | the sense that it was made specially for ! the government, and bore a copyrighted design whom none dare copy The Cleve- | lands were obliged to do the same. as | well as the Harrisons and McKinleys. | The china purchased by the Harrsons, | while not a whole set, comes nearer being | official china than any of the queensware
 purchased since the Hayes administration.
 It bore what none of the table furniture l bought for the Clevelands, McKinleys | and Arthurs had, namely, a design which
 others could not reproduce. Mrs. liar
 rison was very fond of flowers, and it l was during the Harrison administration l that considerable talk, agitation, and dis cussion was indulged in as to the adop- ton of national flower. Mrs. Harrison thought that the golden rod deserved that
 honor more than any of the other in-
 digenous towering plants, and the Harri- son china which resembles the Lincoln
 set in having the national emblem the
 
 latter in having a deep lapis lazui-bue, instead of a mauve-colored border. upon the edge of which are springs of golden rod instead of gilt scalopping.
 Mckinley Set Made.
 The Mckinley set Is simply plain un- official china like the rest and the req son why such queensware appears in Colonel Bingham's report, along with remnants of official sets, is simply for convenience in classification. Mrs. Mo Kinley had penchant for things Ameri- can, and at one time engagements and negotiations were on foot with one of the potteries at East Liverpool O.. for an official set of queensware but for some reason the service was never made, and, with all. due respect to home in- dustries, it Is only fair to say that thus far the Americans have not been able to produce queensware that is at all equal to the magnificent products of the old English and French firms of Wedge wood and Haviland.
 One word as to the Hayes set. This was the most remarkable set of official china ever made for the American gov ernment. and has probbaly received more adverse criticism and given rise to more discussion than anything ever purchased for the White House The set was de- signed by Theodore K. Davis, and thrown" by the Havilands of Limoges, France. Instead of the national emblems appearing in the center of each piece, they are on the bottom of every cup, saucer. and plate of the set, cheek by jowl with the name of the designer and maker. which stand out in bold relief, as though they were part of the former. h. stead of this each piece is crowded full of small paintings of the indigenous flora and fauna of the United States. Wolves buffaloes, peccaries, birds reptiles fish, oysters, flowers and leaves. all delicately painted and quite true to life are jum- bled together upon every piece, produce ing in the eyes of many art critics an ex- ceedingly grotesque and bizarre effect
 The manner in which official china is sold at auction is another thing which few understand. Official china. the prop erty of the government, cannot be copied, given away. nor sold. As an instance of this, Mrs. Dawes. who was a bosom friend of Mrs, Mckinley, was at one time quite anxious to secure a Lincoln plate, but, although mistress of the White House Mrs, Mckinley was powerless to grant her wish. and she was obliged to purchase Lincoln plate from a local curio dealer for the sum of 80
 Sale of Official China.
 This being the case, it is next in orde, to explain why and how White House china is at times sold. In order to be sold official china must be defective and be condemned by a special commission appointed for that purpose. That which constitutes a defect in official china would not, however, be regarded as such even