Two Franklin Pierce presidential service dessert plates. The 'Red-Edged Set,' Limoges, deep rose border, the first outlined in gilt, factory mark obscured beneath notes affixed to undersurface produced from French Limoges porcelain for the White House state service in 1853. Diameter: 7 1/8 inches (18 cm) Provenance: Government liquidation sale, Washington DC, 1889; sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 17 November 1973, lot 781); sold Butterfield & Butterfield Fine American Furniture & Decorative Arts, San Francisco, 4 November 1992, lot 72, part lot). The label affixed to the verso of this plate reads: 'Government sale of Wicker Furniture, China, Tapestries, Draperies, Lace Curtains, Carpets, Mattings, etc. From the Executive Mansion. / On Wednesday morning, December 20th, 1899, at 10 o'clock, I will sell within my sales room, 920 Pa Ave, N.W., by order of W. Sinclair, steward, a lot of unserviceable Furniture, Carpets, Mattings, Draperies, etc., from the Executive Mansion. / James W. Ratcliffe, Auctioneer.' There are two additional labels on the verso, one a 1990s-era Butterfield and Butterfield lot tag, and the other reading 'Franklin Pierce-French / T.V Factory became Haviland.' The high breakage of this service directly prompted Mary Todd Lincoln to replace the remaining 'Red Edge' inventory with her famous 'Solferino' purple service in 1861. A 1961 inventory of the White House China Room now digitized by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library mentions Franklin Pierce's 'Red-Edged Set' marked 'H& Co' used in State Dinner Service with borders of deep rose outlined in gilt. Similar pieces from this service are illustrated Klamkin White House China, New York, 1972, pl 14; Earle, Alice Morse, China Collecting in America, 1892, page 25. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing