An Extensive Assembled Dodie Thayer Pottery Lettuce Ware Dinner and Tea Service, Modern

An Extensive Assembled Dodie Thayer Pottery Lettuce Ware Dinner and Tea Service, Modern

comprising:
2 large oval platters, width 20 1/2 in., 52.1 cm;
1 large circular bowl, diam., 14 7/8 in., 37.8 cm;
18 dinner plates, diam. 10 in., 25.4 cm;
7 side plates, diam. 6 in., 15.3 cm;
6 kidney-shaped dishes, length 8 in., 20.3 cm;
8 small stands, diam. 4 in., 10.2 cm;
10 breakfast bowls;
10 butter pads;
1 large water pitcher;
a teapot and cover;
3 large breakfast cups and saucers;
4 tea cups and saucers;
7 coffee cups and 4 saucers;
2 candle holders,
various Dodie Thayer incised marks.
together with a pottery lettuce-ware serving dish of similar design, length 11 in., 28 cm. 96. pieces.

Condition Report:
For a service of this size, the overall condition is good.
Four cups with some light glaze crazing some staining to interior. one bowl with foot rim partially damaged and repaired. There are some pieces with typical scattered small and tiny chips to extremities of molded leaves, some of which have been colour filled, which includes 2 plates with a tiny chip, four bowls, the teapot, the teapot cover with two colour filled chips, candlestick holders, 2 plates and 2 side plates, 1 small stand and 1 saucer.
Overall, the service presents well in an unused appearance.

Catalogue Note:
Doris DuBois Thayer Hawthorn, better known as Dodie, began modestly creating lettuce leaf designs in her home workshop in the early 1960s.

“I wanted to do something creative and I liked working with my hands, so I took up ceramics.”

Quoted in Marian King, The Greening Of Tableware, Palm Beach Daily News

Throughout her career the unmistakable green-glaze of Dodie Thayer’s wares attracted the attention of some of the greatest American socialites of the 20th century, including:

the Duchess of Windsor;

C.Z Guest (sold by her daughter Cornelia Guest, at Sotheby’s New York, October 17, 2015, lots 500-508)

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (sold at Sotheby’s New York, April 23-26, 1996);

Mary Sayles Booker Braga (sold, Sotheby’s New York, October 19-20, 2015, lots 72, 313, 589-590)

and Barbara and Frank Sinatra (sold, Lady Blue Eyes: Property of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, Sotheby’s New York, December 6, 2018, lot 5).

A large selection was included in the sale of the Estate of Mario Buatta, Prince of Interiors Sotheby’s New York, January 23-24, 2020, lot 202. Most recently a service of this type sold at Sotheby's New York, August 12, 2020 (for $138,600).