Nine French Porcelain Pieces from President Martin Van Buren’s Dinner Service

Object Details

Related Objects

Staffordshire Pearlware Baluster-Form Jug

Unknown
ca. 1840-1841

ceramic; earthenware, with overglaze enamel and luster

Object Essay

Early in 1841, Martin Van Buren (1782–1862), eighth President of the United States and Vice President and Secretary of State under his predecessor, Andrew Jackson, retired from the White House after being soundly defeated by William Henry Harrison and his “hard cider” campaign (see Acc. No. 72.69, the Harrison campaign pitcher). Van Buren gladly left behind the petty bickering of Democrats over his expenditures to replace White House furnishings destroyed or damaged by Jackson’s enthusiastic supporters and immersed himself in the refurbishment of “Lindenwald” in his hometown of Kinderhook, New York, near Albany. Although his wife had died in 1819, Van Buren liked to entertain elegantly and found that his newly renovated home needed china as well as most other furnishings. These were purchased largely in New York City between 1841 and 1844.^{1_{Many invoices for these furnishings are preserved at “Lindenwald,” the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Kinderhook, New York, which also owns other pieces of this china. Telephone Conversation, Curator Michael Henderson and Bert Denker, April 12, 1991.}}

For the White House, Van Buren had bought no more china than was needed to replace pieces from simple, standard patterns that had been used there for some time.^{2_{Klapthor 1975, 60–61, gives information on White House china during Van Buren’s administration.}} For his new home, however, he chose French porcelain in the newest taste. The pieces preserved in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms come from two similar but slightly different services: a large breakfast and dinner set with a soft green band and fine red lines and a smaller dessert service in which gold lines replace the red of the other set. Except for the egg cups, all pieces are monogrammed with the entwined “V” and “B” for Van Buren.

Ellen Paul Denker and Bert R. Denker

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.