[LINCOLN, ABRAHAM & MARY TODD]

A soup bowl attributed to the 1864 dinner service ordered by Mary Todd Lincoln for the White House. A circa 1865 porcelain soup bowl with a wide buff band within a gilt border and a gilt circle in the center, diameter 9 1/2 inches. Some possible restoration to the foot, with modern inventory label "581-38" to the underside.

By 1865, much of the Solferino china ordered by Mrs. Lincoln in 1861 had been chipped, broken, or stolen from the White House and a new set, simpler in design, was ordered in late 1864, arriving from France in early 1865. The importer of the set was James K. Kerr of Philadelphia whose establishment was known as China Hall. The set was simply adorned with the buff border edged in gilt. Not yet paid for at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, President Johnson approved the expense but must not have liked the pattern as the stock of Solferino was replenished at that time. When Chester Arthur redecorated the White House in 1881 the remaining pieces of the set that had been packed away were sold in a public deaccession sale. This bowl is accompanied by a copy of a document from an ancestor of Sylvanus Wilson Hall who purchased the set at that auction (other documents accompanying the bowl relate to later donations to the White House of certain pieces and an embossed document from The Horse Soldier, Gettysburg, dated 2012). The current bowl is attributed to the set purchased by Sylvanue Wilson Hall.