This butter cooler has many parts to it. The entire butter cooler is made of porcelain and is a white color.
There is a round dish in the center of a plate. The dish has a lid that completely covers it with gold trim, and has two handles on the top pointing straight up, as well as a handle in the middle. The handles all have gold trim.
The plate under the dish also has a gold trim and is a bit deep in the center.
The plate's diameter is 4 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm x 10.8 cm)
The dish's diameter is 2 in. x 9 1/4 in. x 9 1/4 in. (5.08 cm x 23.5 cm x 23.5 cm)
The lid's diameter is 1 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in. (3.18 cm x 10.8 cm x 10.8 cm)
When looking at the butter cooler, consider the following questions:
What was this dish used for?
Why do you think this dish was preserved?
Why do you think Washington had a dish that was both plain and fancy? What kind of message might he be telling his guests?
Who might have used and interacted with this dish?
Classroom Materials downloads are ZIP files that include, when available: document images (JPEGs), document
transcripts (PDF as well as Word and/or Excel files), and ready to use classroom resources (activities, discussion
prompts, lesson plans, etc.). These materials are available for educational uses only. If you would like to
reproduce them in any other medium, please contact Dawn Bonner,
Manager of Visual Resources.
This butter cooler was part of a 309-piece chinaware collection that George Washington purchased in 1790. It is plain, yet fashionable French porcelain, and when it was used, it showed guests that Washington was both fancy and humble. This piece would have been used to serve butter.
