Colonial plates and dishes, patterned after English examples, are characterized by brims that are multiple-reeded or broad and narrow. By the second quarter of the eighteenth century, they were replaced by either single-bead or smooth brims. In England the latter survive in quantity, yet in the United States their relative scarcity suggests they were never produced in comparable numbers. In addition to its rarity, John Skinner’s plate is distinguished by the prominent stamping of its original owner's initials.

Related examples: Fairbanks 1974, p. 105, nos. 90, 91.

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.