"A Day of Thanksgiving and Praise"

It was President Abraham Lincoln who issued the Proclamation of October 3rd, 1863, making Thanksgiving a national holiday. And as we plan for this most American of festivities next week, it is a good opportunity to explore an interesting item coming up in the November 25 sale of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps: a porcelain salad plate in the “Solferino” pattern from the Lincoln White House State Dinner Service (Lot 247).

At the time of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, the country was in the midst of a brutal civil war, but the Union had achieved some measure of victory at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, encouraging the President.

Lincoln’s words are poignant:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies … In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity … I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
      – Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1863

But back in 1861, when the State Dinner Service was ordered, it was a different story. When the Lincolns arrived at the White House, they found the previous State Dinner Service, ordered by the Pierce administration, much depleted (in these early years the White House was a rather public place where guests often left with souvenirs). Despite the fact that with Lincoln’s election civil war was impending, Congress appropriated funds to supply required furnishings to the White House, and Mrs. Lincoln set out for Philadelphia and New York to order items. It was noted by The New York Daily Tribune on 16 May 1861 that Mrs. Lincoln "visited the establishments of Lord & Taylor and E.V. Haughwout & Co. At the latter establishment, she ordered a splendid dinner service for the White House in 'Solferino' and gold with the arms of the United States emblazoned on each piece."

It was the Haughwout firm that had supplied the previous set to the Pierce administration following a display at the 1853 Crystal Palace. At that time, Haughwout displayed two styles, the one chosen by Pierce and the other with the "Alhambra" border which was to be chosen by Mrs. Lincoln years later. For Mrs. Lincoln, the blue band that encloses the design was updated to the bright purplish-red 'Soliferno' coloring that had become fashionable since its creation in France in 1859 (Mrs. Lincoln also frequently wore purple clothing). The original order was for 190 pieces, including a variety of plates, bowls, custard cups, and punch bowls. The expense of the set at the time of the outbreak of war was not lost on the press, which took the opportunity to lambast the Lincolns.

The salad plate offered in the November 25 auction may have been present at the White House during that first official Thanksgiving in November 1863. It is also important to note here that this was not Lincoln’s only important proclamation that year – his Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the United States took effect on January 1st, 1863 (an example of this proclamation is included in a set of 1863 military orders in the auction as lot 294).

The Lincolns would use the State Dinner Service throughout his first term until, like the Pierce service, it was too chipped and depleted to continue in formal use. As the cost of the war had greatly increased between 1861 and 1864, when Mrs. Lincoln ordered a new service, it was much more sober in its presentation and clearly less expensive. The “Gold Band” service was ordered in late 1864 and arrived from France in early 1865. The Lincolns only got to use it for a matter of weeks before the assassination of the President in April 1865 (Doyle sold a soup bowl in this pattern in September 2024 as lot 91). The set hadn’t yet been paid for when the Lincolns left the White House. President Johnson approved the expense of the new service but must not have liked it much as he ordered a replenishment of the “Solferino” service in 1866.

Let us remember the lessons of Lincoln this Thanksgiving. The President closed his Thanksgiving Proclamation with the following message to his fellow citizens:

And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
      – Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1863

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Doyle.

Rare Books, Autographs & Maps

Auction Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 10am
Exhibition November 21 - 23

Lot 247. A Plate from the 1861 Lincoln White House State Dinner Service in the 'Solferino' pattern.
View Lot