In 1830 Benjamin Tucker wrote a letter to a client that discussed a tea set sold to his daughters and listed the items form by form. One curious entry immediately following twenty-four cups and twenty-four saucers is “12 muffins.”  William Ellis Tucker commented in a letter to another client about the price of  “. . . my porcelain teas & muffins plain and gilded. The best quality of gilded teas such as are warranted to wear well are five Dollars for 12 cups and 12 saucers and four Dollars for Muffins of the same.” Tucker’s price list also mentions “muffins” and indicates that they cost 1½ cents to make, the same cost as saucers and cup plates. Were these small plates then used for muffins served at tea? Plates the same diameter as these examples have survived with three tea and coffee services, including one made for Anne Tucker, confirming that these plates were made as part of the tea and coffee sets.

Related Examples: Tucker Pattern Books, PMA.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.