Plates measuring between eight and ten inches in diameter were produced in both shallow and deep sizes, the latter designated as soup plates. Frederick Bassett’s plate carries the stamp “New York,” perhaps as other pewter was marked “London” (see B.60.81), to imply a high quality. Another plausible explanation for the locational stamp is that it was intended as a means of promoting domestic manufactures over English imports, as other patriotic American artisans did prior to the Revolution.

Related examples: Watts 1968. p. 65, no. 180; Fairbanks 1974, p. III, no. 242; Montgomery 1978, p. 292; Butler 1983, p. 140, no. 223.

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.