A New Day at the PMA
Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley
Fig. 1. Covered caudle cup from a service for George Washington designed by Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest (1739–1801), made in China for the American market, 1796. Porcelain with enamel, gilded, and underglaze blue decoration; height 5, width 5 1/8, depth 3 1/4 inches. This is one of more than 450 pieces of tableware owned by the nation’s First Families assembled by Robert L. McNeil Jr. A new interactive digital guide shows how the arrangement of the china on a table created a work of art unto itself, and speaks to the roles of those who maintained and worked with it, as well as of the presidents and first ladies who selected the patterns.