The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-13

from a Canton porcelain plate be-
longing to George washington
down to pieces of the Wilson state
dining SETS now on exhibit II
the White house.
A room in the executive mansion
on the ground floor corridor has
been set aside as collection room
and fitted with colonial cabinets
Here, on shelves lined with ivory
colored velvet, are 236 pieces Of
historic glass. silverware. and china
souvenirs of every president VI
to Mr.. Harding, with the one ex'
ception of Andrew Johnson As
President Johnson is known tc
have duplicated the Lincoln china
for his use, he may be said in a
way to be represented by some OF
the Lincoln souvenirs.
1t is too soon for the present ex-
ecutive and his wife to add their
contribution to the porcelain hall
of fame. Mrs. Harding has not vet
selected any china for the White
house. Every presidents wife buys
small sets of china or odd pieces
| for family use, but it is not likely
for several years anyway, as the
Wilson set was bought only in
1918. The set used before that was
bought in 1903 by Mrs. Roosevelt
and contained about 1900 pieces.
1t stood Is years hard service, but
White house china, like any other,
gets Clipped and sets are broken.
Mrs. Wilson had seen an exhibit
| of American-made china and de-
termined to order from New Jer-
| sey pottery. Several presidents
wives before this had thought it
would be democratic thing to buy
homemade china, but nothing COM
parable to the we'll known foreign
makes could be found. That Amer
lea has finally been able to pro-
duce china that is at no disadvan-
tage beside Haviland, Wedgewood,
Sevres and Canton is shown by the
Wilson set which was made by
Lenox at Trenton, n. J.. a number
of samples of which stand near the
foreign makes in the White house
collection room.
The Wilson set replaced the
Roosevelt china in wartime, when
little formal entertaining was be-
ing done. Later, Mr.. wilson's ILL
ness made big White house dinners
impossible; so that the set is prac-
tically new.
Collecting the Old China.
Finding authentic souvenirs from
the table of every president has
been no easy task 1t was not even
- r.
White house. The work was begun
in 1908. when Mrs. Abby Gum Ba-
ker, who has for some years been
interested in historic Washington,
began to catalogue the White house
ware.
Up to that time, the old punch
bowls, platters and other antiques
in the White house closets were
but vaguely associated with the
past presidents. In some instances
the history of valuable piece was
not remembered or recorded at all
When stock was taken, it was
found that a number of the admin
istrations had left no souvenirs OF
their tableware. Mrs. Baker found
china Of only seven dinner sets
those of Lincoln and later presi-
dents. Apparently old White house
china had not been regarded with
any eye to its historic Importance
President Washington set a prec-
edent in this connection when he
held sale on moving from the ex-
ecutive mansion in New York to
Philadelphia. All the furniture and
china that in his estimation were
"decayed" were sold at auction
After that, White house sales OF
broken lots of china and of dam
aged ware were customary. Sec
ond-hand dealers were the chief
attendants at these sales. That
things sold cheap is attested to by
such stories as the one that a
cracked Lincoln pitcher sold for
$3.50.
Gradually antique dealers saw
possibilities in White house china,
and in copying of it. So many
stores in Washington were selling
authentic" White house plates by
Mrs. Roosevelt's time, that she put
a stop to the White house china
sales.
The design of the Roosevelt state
dining set was patented, SO that il
could not, like other historic sets,
be copied in cheap ware for gen
eral use. This copying became a
nuisance in the time of President
Hayes, when the most elaborate
dinner set ever made for the White
house was designed. This was a
pictorial set, each piece bearing a
scene, or some animal, bird or fish.
The idea was to represent the flora
and fauna OF every state. The china
was of beautiful quality and the
designs were artistic, but when