Turkey Plates for Oyster Tastes

A porcelain turkey plate produced in the style of the
Rutherford B. Hayes china by Haviland & Co.  Designed by Theodore Davis.  

A while back I wrote about collecting oyster plates. During my research, I stumbled on a story about President Rutherford B. Hayes and turkey plates. I thought the story was a interesting piece of American history, so I decided to devote an entire post to it. Here's what I found about the oyster plate coveted by many collectors.

WHY A TURKEY PLATE?

First Lady Lucy W. Hayes

As many First Ladies have done before and after her, Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of our 19th president Rutherford B. Hayes, decided to commission new White House china. After a chance meeting, she discussed her ideas about the china with Harper's Weekly designer Theodore R. Davis, who was known for his nature art. Together, they decided that the new china would include various wildlife and plants. The plates are gorgeous and the "Hayes collection" is still the favorite among official White House china enthusiasts.

As almost all formal Victorian china sets included an oyster plate, the Hayes White House china would too. Inspired by wildlife, the oyster plate took on the form of a turkey. If you look closely, Davis used both the outside and inside of the oyster shells to create what looks like a turkey.  Even the turkey's head is formed by the hinged end of an oyster.

Davis gave his designs to the famous Haviland & Co. (based in Limoges, France) to produce the china.  Many, like the oyster plate, were made in unusual shapes which made them very expensive to produce.  To offest the costs, Haviland & Co. applied for a U.S. Patent and produced the same turkey plate - an exact copy of the original White House oyster plates - for the public. The plates produced for the public have the patent date on the back: "Aug. 10, 1880." The originals have the date "1879." All of the plates have the designer's signature.

ORIGINALS HARD TO FIND

Rutherford B. Hayes.
19th President of the United States

I first contacted the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Ohio to find out if I could get a picture of the original plate and its hallmark. No luck. According to Mary Lou Rendan, collections manager at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, the White House has all of the original plates. Not even President Hayes' official library can get one to display.  Several of the copy plates were donated to the library, but no originals exist outside of the executive mansion

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

So how much are the Hayes oyster plates worth? The originals are priceless, belong to the U.S. government, and are illegal to sell. But ... the copies sold in 1881 are still worth quite a bit of money. Today, a single turkey oyster plate in the Rutherford B. Hayes design sells for about $2,400 each. Check out this video from the PBS Antiques Road Show.

Watch Appraisal: Presidential Oyster Plates, ca. 1880 on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow.

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OYSTERS FOR THE PEOPLE

First Lady Lucy W. Hayes didn't just start an oyster plate obsession, she and her husband regularly ate and served oysters at the White House. A collection of vintage White House oyster recipes are on our sister website Harbor Island Oyster Co. taken from The Official White House Cookbook (1887). At the time, oysters were plentiful and eaten by everyone - rich, poor, ladies, and laborers.

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RECIPES FROM THE FIRST LADY

Lucy Hayes contributed her own recipes to the Victorian oyster frenzy.  None of these recipes would have been served on the turkey oyster plate, but I thought you would enjoy the cooking techniques.  Anybody still have a red-hot kitchen shovel?

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Scalloped Oysters in Shells

They may be served cooked in their shells, or in silver scallop shells, when they present a better appearance than when cooked and served all in one dish.

If cooked in an oyster or clam shell, one large, or two or three little oysters are placed in it, with a few drops of the oyster liquor. It is sprinkled with pepper and salt, and cracker or bread crumbs. Little pieces of butter are placed over the top. When all are ready, they are put into the oven. When they are plump and hot, they are done. Brown the tops with a salamander, or with a red-hot kitchen shovel.

If they are cooked in the silver scallop shells, which are larger, several oysters are served in the one shell; one or two are put in, peppered, salted, until the shell is full, or until enough was used for one person. Moisten them with the oyster-juice, and strew little pieces of butter over the top. They are merely kept in the oven until they are thoroughly hot, then browned with the salamander. Serve one shell for each person at table, placed on a small plate. The oysters may be bearded[sic] or not.

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Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients: Three dozen oysters, a large tea-cupful of bread or cracker crumbs, two ounces of fresh butter, pepper and salt, half a tea-cupful of oyster-juice.

Make layers of these ingredients, as described in the last article, in the top of a chafing-dish, or in any kind of pudding or gratin dish; bake in a quick oven about fifteen minutes; brown with a salamander.

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Oyster Stew

Put a quart of oysters on the fire in their own liquor. The moment they begin to boil, skim them out, and add to the liquor a half-pint of hot cream, salt, and Cayenne pepper to taste. Skim it well, take off the fire, add to the oysters an ounce and a half of butter broken into small pieces. Serve immediately.

Recipes from First Lady Lucy Hayes
Courtesy of the Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Center

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BUCKET LIST

Seeing an original Rutherford B. Hayes turkey oyster plate from the White House collection is on my oyster bucket list. Have a copy of the original one in your collection?  Post here about it.  I would love to know about it.