Lenox salad plate from the official White House china service ordered by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918, which remained in use through the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover administrations. The elegant plate measures 8.25″ in diameter and features a deep ivory border surrounding a brighter ivory body and two bands of matte gold encrusted with stars and stripes, and emblazoned with the presidential seal in gold at the 12 o'clock position. Reverse bears the faded Lenox maker's mark: "Lenox, Dulin & Martin Co., Washington, D.C., The White House, 1918." In fine condition, with the maker's mark quite faded but legible.
The Wilson Lenox state service china was the first White House china to be manufactured in the United States, and marked a big advancement for the American ceramics industry. The chief designer, Frank Holmes, described his work as 'so simple and so unostentatious that it cannot but suit the most aesthetic taste and yet so rich in tone it commensurates with dignity of the home of our Chief Executive.' President Wilson made only one modification to the design, changing the Great Seal of the United States to the presidential seal. Provenance: The Raleigh DeGeer Amyx Collection.
