Images(7)

Covered Vegetable Dish

Date1827-1838

Maker Tucker Porcelain Manufactory (1826-1838)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumHard-paste porcelain

DimensionsOH: 5 3/4" (with cover); OL: 9 3/8" (with handles); OD: 8 3/8" (body with lid)"

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Edna and Ms. Wendy Tucker in memory of their husband and father, Edward Bolton “Teddy” Tucker, M.B.E.

Object number2020-458,a&b

DescriptionMolded covered vegetable dish with slightly flared integral foot, of a circular body that widens upward from the foot. Two opposing vertical Grecian-style handles are fixed to the sides of the dish, with the tops of the handles level with the rim. The slighlty domed circular cover rises to a squat spool-shaped support for a hemispherical finial with a waisted base. The surface of the finial is molded with six acanthus leaves radiating from a central flower. The dish is plain white with gilt decoration. The foot, exterior rim of the cover, and the finial show traces of gilding, and a worn gilt band wraps around the exterior rim of the dish. The glaze has been wiped on the underside of the foot and on the interior a half inch below the rim and from the bezel under the lid.
Label TextWilliam Ellis Tucker (1800-1832) opened a porcelain factory in Philadelphia in 1826 with the goal of supplying the United States with American-made porcelain equal to that being imported from France and England. After initial successes creating pitchers, Tucker soon expanded his offerings to include dinner and tea sets that closely imitated French and English designs.

A surviving receipt for an order likely placed by members of William’s extended family records this round covered dish, which along with the rest of the dinner and dessert service, was “to be White and Gold.” The manufactory drew its inspiration for the Neoclassical form and gilt band decoration of this dish from trends in porcelain imported from France and England. The Tucker family cherished the costly service and passed it down through the generations.

The Virginia Tuckers are one branch of the family that owned pieces from William’s factory. Ann Evelina Tucker (1789-1855), wife of Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) and daughter-in-law to St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, documents the “Tucker china” in her will.

MarkingsIncised "o" to underside of base.
ProvenanceDescended through the Tucker family, gift of Edna G. Tucker and Wendy S. Tucker.