Dessert Plate, Dessert Cooler, Basket, Monroe State Service, White House Collection
These French porcelain serving pieces, including a dessert plate, a dessert cooler, and a basket, were made at the Paris factory of Pierre Louis Dagoty and Edouard D. Honoré in 1817. The pieces were part of a state service that President James Monroe selected for the White House. The eagle emblem on the plate and cooler may have been derived from the engraved letterhead stationery of the United States consulate in Paris,c. 1818–30s. The pattern features an amaranth border, a color admired by the Bonapartes as symbolic of immortality, with allegorical vignettes representing Strength, the Arts, Commerce, the Sciences, and Agriculture.